Deutsche Bank Strikes Deal on Bribery & Price ‘Spoofing’ Charges
Pledging to pay $130 million, Deutsche Bank resolves claims that it fraudulently hid bribery payments and “spoofed” prices in the precious metals futures markets.
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SEC
Hedge Fund Offers to Buy Tribune Publishing at $520M Valuation
A hedge fund that controls one-third of Tribune Publishing’s shares has offered to buy out the media conglomerate’s remaining shares and take total control of its operations, making its intentions official with a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released Thursday.
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Popular Stock App Robinhood Strikes $65M Deal With SEC
Just one day after facing a groundbreaking suit over fiduciary duty, the stock-trading app Robinhood Financial reached a federal settlement Thursday over a practice said to have cost customers tens of millions of dollars.
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Nasdaq Seeks Mandatory Board Diversity for Listed Companies
The Nasdaq stock exchange is seeking U.S. authority to require more diversity in the boardrooms of Nasdaq-listed companies, or to explain why they can not.
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SEC Investigation Into Ex-Informant Challenged in 11th Circuit
A New York attorney fought in the 11th Circuit Tuesday to bat away subpoenas issued to her in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-running investigation into her client, a former government informant who says he is being targeted despite helping the federal agency prosecute “dozens of individuals.”
Read moreAmazon Insider
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a manager in Amazon’s tax division, accusing her of using her knowledge to help family members conduct insider trading deals.
Read moreDieselgate
A federal court in California dismissed part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s suit against Volkswagen arising from the Dieselgate emissions scandal, finding that the Department of Justice “had the power to and did release” the agency’s civil claims arising out of asset-backed securities offerings.
Read moreEx-Assemblyman
The SEC claims in a federal complaint that former Georgia Assemblyman Clarence Dean Alford “fraudulently induced at least 100 investors, predominantly from the Indian-American community, to invest at least $23 million in unregistered, high-yield promissory notes,” through gross misrepresentations, in federal court.
Read moreDefrauding Cops
The SEC claims in a federal complaint that Victor Lee Farias, of Fair Oaks, Texas, and his company Integrity Aviation & Leasing “defrauded investors — many of whom were retired San Antonio Police Department officers or first responders — out of more than $14 millionthrough a fraudulent investment scheme,” featuring “Ponzi payments.”
Read moreUnregistered Securities
The SEC claims in a federal complaint that Complete Business Solutions Group dba Par Funding and 17 others sold unregistered and fraudulent securities by providing loans that charge more than 400% interest to small businesses, raising nearly $500 million from it.
Read moreIrony in Court
In parallel civil and criminal complaints, the SEC and federal prosecutors accused Virginia-based Trustify fka FlimFlam and its CEO Daniel Boice of raising more than $18.5 million “by making materially false and misleading statements and omissions about, among other things, Trustify’s revenue growth, its corporate client base and size of its investigator network, and the use of investor funds.”
Read moreSecurities Fraud
The SEC claims in a federal complaint that Michael Barry Carter, 46, of Knoxville, Tenn., “misappropriated approximately $6 million from brokerage customers and an elderly investment advisory client while he served as their financial adviser at a large financial institution.”
Read moreSecurities Trading
In a cryptocurrency fraud case, lobbyist Jack Abramoff will pay $55,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission and is permanently banned from securities trading under a settlement in a California federal court.
Read moreSecurities
Matthew Benjamin, of Tenafly, N.J., defrauded investors of more than $900,000 through his company, Clear Solutions, the SEC claims in federal court.
Read morePharma Bribes
Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals will pay $21.5 million to settle charges of bribing officials in Turkey and Russia to get favorable treatment for its primary drug, Soliris, which treats a blood disease, the SEC said Thursday.
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Investment Fraudsters Get a High Court Break on Legitimate Expenses
Vacating a $26.4 million disgorgement award, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that an accounting of legitimate expenses may reduce the tab facing a couple who swindled Chinese investors.
Read more$10.5 Million
AmTrust Financial Services and its former CFO Ronald E. Pipoly Jr. will pay $10.5 million for failing to disclose material facts about how the company estimated its insurance losses and reserves, the SEC said.
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Stock Exchanges Win Fight Against SEC Over Trading Fees
The D.C. Circuit sided with stock exchanges Tuesday, ruling that the Securities and Exchange Commission can’t order them to stage a trading fee experiment that would study brokers’ trading tendencies.
Read moreSecurities Fraud
The SEC said it obtained an asset freeze against five people and six offshore entities that “generated more than $25 million from illegal sales of multiple microcap companies’ stock, including four that were the subject of recent SEC trading suspension orders: Sandy Steele Unlimited, WOD Retail Solutions, Bioscience Neutraceuticals, and Rivex Technologies.
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