Bernard L. Compton, former accountant at Domino’s Pizza, will pay nearly $2 million for insider trading. Compton illicitly leveraged his insider role at Domino’s to trade ahead of 12 of the company’s earnings announcements between 2015 and 2020. Compton attempted to hide his crime by spreading the trades across several different brokerage accounts held by himself and his family members. Compton is permanently enjoined from practicing before the SEC. SEC
Securities violation allegations for Trump SPAC again raises concerns on SPAC IPO model
Posted 11/3/21
Last year was the year of SPAC mergers. Inevitably, perhaps, this year is shaping up to be the year of SEC investigations. Just last week, we published a post about an SEC enforcement action against the Akazoo SPAC transaction after the target company was caught falsifying customer data. Moments later, a huge new SPAC fraud story broke: Donald Trump’s new media company’s recently announced SPAC merger may...
SEC Chairman Views Cryptocurrency Markets as the “Wild West” and Calls for More Investor Protection
Posted 08/13/21
During a recent speech discussing the intersection of national security with cryptocurrencies at the Aspen Security Forum, Gary Gensler, the new Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), made clear the SEC will use its broad powers to continue protecting investors from the volatility associated with cryptocurrency markets which he characterized as the “Wild West.” He also urged Congress to grant...
How will regulators respond to Bitcoin’s price fluctuations?
Posted 05/18/21
The price of Bitcoin—never stable—has become even more erratic in the last month. From April 17 to May 17, the price fell 26%. Such a huge drop would be noteworthy in a stock investment. But in something claiming to be a currency, that kind of instability is normally only seen in times of crisis and hyperinflation. Coming just as cryptocurrencies are making a play to be considered mainstream, this latest...
A market mystery recently caught the attention of financial journalists and the public more generally: a New Jersey deli that is seemingly never open and reports minimal profits is—on paper at least—worth $100 million after issuing public shares. The shareholders are few, and mostly in China. The owners are local (the revered wrestling coach) and not (a father-son investor duo with a history of shady...
The SPAC bubble continues, and all the fraud concerns remain
Posted 03/12/21
A few months ago, we wrote about why the sudden explosion of SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) raised serious investor fraud concerns as they risk being scammed. Since then, the number of SPACs and their very high-profile acquisition targets has only continued to rise. On March 10, 2021, for example, Bloomberg reported BuzzFeed was considering a SPAC merger to go public. And none of the fraud...
The hot retro design trend these days is not only slip dresses and tie-dye, but an once-obscure investment vehicle called a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC. SPACs (aka “blank check” companies) are sweeping the nation as the darling of investors who wish to take a company public without the scrutiny of an IPO.
So what is a SPAC?
With due apologies to Seinfield, SPACs are companies about nothing. ...
Energy company Andeavor LLC will pay a $20 million penalty to resolve allegations that, while the company was in merger discussions with Marathon Petroleum Corp. in 2018, it implemented a stock buyback plan without taking adequate compliance steps, including an evaluation of whether the company was in possession of material non-public information about corporate developments. The Marathon merger, which valued Andeavor at over $150 per share, was announced one month after Andeavor completed the buyback at an average price of $97 per share. SEC
Marcus Schulz will pay over $1 million – a $670,000 penalty and $427,000 in disgorgement – to resolve CFTC allegations that, while employed as an energy trader, he passed on confidential information to an outside broker, including information about his employers block trade orders. The broker would then arrange to take the other side of the order at prices that allowed the broker and others involved in the scheme to make a profit on offsetting trades, which profits they shared with Schulz. CFTC
Eight defendants - Arkadiy Dubovoy, Igor Dubovoy, Southeastern Holding and Investment Company LLC, APD Developers, Inc., Leonid Momotok, Aleksandr Garkusha, Vladislav Khalupsky, and Memelland Investments Ltd. – have settled civil claims in connection with the hacking of newswire services to steal corporate earnings releases before they were made public. The SEC alleged that the hackers created a secret web-based location to transmit the stolen data to traders in the United States and abroad. The traders allegedly used this nonpublic information in a short window of opportunity to place illicit trades in stocks, options, and other securities, sometimes funneling a portion of their illegal profits to the hackers. The defendants will pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest totaling more than $14 million. SEC