Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 15th, 2016
(Jan 2016)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Announces 2016 Examination Priorities
January 11, 2016 (Litigation Release No. 4)
The SEC has announced its new 2016 priorities for its Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. The new priorities center around liquidity controls, public pension advisers, product promotion, exchange-traded funds, and variable annuities.
Julie M. Riewe, Co-Chief of Asset Management Unit, to Leave SEC After 10 Years of Service
January 11, 2016 (Litigation Release No. 5)...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - May 15th, 2015
(May 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Sues Retirement Planners for Making False Claims to Investors
May 11, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 85)
Novers Financial and its principals, Christopher A. Novinger and Brady J. Speers, were charged with falsely informing customers that interests in life settlements they sold were guaranteed and federally insured. Interests in life settlements are investments that are based on life insurance policies purchased by others. These interests are not risk-free or...
FINRA Enforcement Actions: Month in Review
(Jun 2014)
MAY 2014 SELECTED FINRA ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FIRMS FINED
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC (CRD #14020, Chicago, Illinois)
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC consented to a censure and $95,000 fine for allegedly failing "to report short interest positions to the New York Stock Exchange and FINRA on certain settlement dates, and submitt[ing] to FINRA an inaccurate short-interest position report." FINRA found that the firm's supervisory system did not provide for supervision reasonably designed to achieve...
FINRA Enforcement Actions: Month in Review
(May 2014)
APRIL 2014 SELECTED FINRA ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FIRMS FINED
The Huntington Investment Company (CRD #16986, Columbus, Ohio)
The Huntington Investment Company consented to a $25,000 fine and censure. The firm consented to an entry of "findings that it failed to provide notice to the MSRB via the Electronic Municipal Market Access System (EMMA) that no preliminary official statements or official statements were to be prepared for bond anticipation note offerings in which the firm participated."...
SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - July 5th, 2013
(Jul 2013)
SEC Obtains Freeze On Proceeds from Unlawful Distribution of Biozoom Securities
July 3, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22742)
According to the complaint, eight Argentine citizens "unlawfully sold millions of shares" of Biozoom, Inc. (formerly Entertainment Art, Inc.) "in unregistered transactions" while two other Argentine citizens, Fernando Loureyro and Mariano Graciarena, also had received shares of Biozoom "but had not yet sold them." According to the SEC, from March to June 2013, the ten...
SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - June 28th, 2013
(Jun 2013)
Court Enters Final Judgments Against JBI, Inc. and Former Officer in Accounting Fraud Case
June 27, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22735)
Final judgments were entered against JBI, Inc. and John W. Bordynuik, "two defendants in a fraud action filed by the Commission in 2012." In its original complaint, the SEC alleged that JBI, Bordynuik (JBI's former CEO) and Ronald Baldwin Jr. (JBI's former CFO) engaged in a scheme that allowed JBI to state "materially false and inaccurate financial...
SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review (Part II) - March 16th, 2012
(Mar 2012)
Due to the high volume of litigation releases from the Securities and Exchange Commission over the past week, we're spreading this week's review over two posts. This is the second of the two posts.
SEC Charges Five with Insider Trading on Confidential Merger Negotiations Between Philadelphia Company and Japanese Firm
March 14, 2012 (Litigation Release No. 22288)
The SEC charged Timothy J. McGee, Michael W. Zirinsky, Robert Zirinsky, and Hong Kong residents Paulo Lam and Marianna sze wan Ho with...
SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 9th, 2012
(Mar 2012)
District Judge Approves SEC Settlement with Koss Corporation and Michael J. Koss, its former CEO and CFO
March 9, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22279)
In the SEC's October 2011 complaint(Litigation Release No. 22138), the SEC alleged that the Milwaukee, Wisconsin based Koss Corporation had prepared materially inaccurate financial statements from FY 2005-2009. The complaint alleged that, during this period, Sujata Sachdeva (Koss Corporation's former Principal Accounting Officer and Vice...
