Securities
Matthew Benjamin, of Tenafly, N.J., defrauded investors of more than $900,000 through his company, Clear Solutions, the SEC claims in federal court.
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Pharma 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.
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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.
Read moreCovid-19 Fraud
The SEC claims Jason C. Nielsen, 53, of Santa Cruz, Calif., made $137,000 in a pump-and-dump scheme involving Arrayit Corp., which he falsely claimed had an FDA-approved Covid-19 test, in federal court.
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The SEC claims MMT Distribution and R&D Global defrauded investors of $12 million in a cybercoin scheme operated by codefendants Daniel F. Putnam, 46, of Layton, Utah; Jean Paul Ramirez Rico, 37, of Medellín, Colombia; and Angel A. Rodriguez, 43, of Provo, Utah, in federal court.
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The SEC sued E*Hedge Securities and its president Devon W. Parks, of Delray Beach, Fla., for books and records, in federal court.
Read moreBitcoin Settlement
San Jose-based blockchain services company BitClave will return $25.5 million it raised in an unregistered initial coin offering of digital asset securities, the SEC said Thursday.
Read morePandemic Fraud
A federal class action claims that SCWorx and its CEO Marc S. Schessel falsely claimed that they had sold 2 million “Covid-19 rapid testing kits, ‘with provision for additional weekly orders of 2 million units for 23 weeks, valued at $35M per week,’” goosing its stock price, after which the SEC halted trading in it.
Read morePonzi Scam
The SEC says it has shut down a $5.6 million Ponzi scam that Paul Horton Smith Sr., a registered investment adviser, ran through his companies Northstar Communications, eGate, and Planning Services, all of Riverside County, California.
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The SEC sued Ronald Swanson, a disbarred attorney, formerly of Litchfield, Conn., claiming he defrauded investors in Sonic Cavitation of more than $2 million, in federal court.
Read moreSEC Whacks Credit Rater
The SEC on Friday fined credit-rating agency Morningstar Credit Ratings $3.5 million for violating a conflict of interest rule designed to separate credit ratings and analysis from sales and marketing efforts.
Read moreVirus Fraud
The SEC sued Turbo Global Partners and its CEO, securities recidivist Robert W. Singerman, 69, both of Tampa, for claiming they have “equipment that scans large crowds to detect individuals with elevated fevers” to use against the Covid-19 pandemic, in federal court.
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The SEC said Thursday it has charged Applied BioSciences Corp., Turbo Global Partners and Turbo CEO Robert W. Singerman for selling “supposed finger-prick COVID-19 tests to the general public” (BioSciences) and “thermal scanning equipment” (Turbo).
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The SEC said it obtained appointment of a receiver for Florida-based investment adviser TCA Fund Management Group and affiliated for “fraudulently inflat(ing) net asset values and performance for several funds it managed, resulting in the funds always reporting positive returns.”
Read more$5 Million
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will pay $5 million to settle charges that it provided misleading information to clients in its retail wrap fee programs regarding trade execution services and transaction costs, the SEC said Tuesday.
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The SEC sued Damon Elliott, 48, a British citizen who lives in France, and his Piptastic Ltd. company, of England, claiming he fraudulently raised at least $9 million from investors, in federal court.
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