SEC Charges Seattle-Area Hedge Fund Adviser With Taking Unearned Management Fees
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Bellevue, Wash.-based investment advisory firm and its CEO with fraudulently inflating the values of investments in the portfolio of a private fund they advised so they could attain unearned management fees. The SEC also charged the fund’s outside auditors with performing a deficient audit that enabled the firm to send misleading financial statements to investors. Chris Yoo and his firm Summit Asset Strategies Investment Management agreed to settle the fraud charges arising from Summit Stable Value Fund. Yoo and another of his advisory firms Summit Asset Strategies Wealth Management agreed to settle…
Read MoreSEC Charges Advisory Firm With Fraud for Improperly Retaining Fees
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that an investment advisory firm in Philadelphia has agreed to pay more than $21 million to settle charges that it fraudulently retained fees belonging to collateralized debt obligation (CDO) clients. An SEC investigation found that Taberna Capital Management did not tell CDO clients it was retaining payments known as “exchange fees” in connection with restructuring transactions. Taberna’s retention of the exchange fees was neither permitted by the CDOs’ governing documents nor disclosed to investors in the CDOs. The fees rightfully belonged to the CDOs and created conflicts of interest that Taberna failed to…
Read MoreSEC Halts Ongoing Fraud in Minnesota
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an emergency order to halt a Minnesota resident and his company from continuing to raise money from investors under false pretenses while failing to produce the promised returns. The SEC alleges that James M. Louks of Owatonna, Minn., and FiberPoP Solutions Inc. have defrauded nearly 100 investors by convincing them to invest in notes that would theoretically help fund the company’s operations. FiberPoP was founded in 2003 to build and operate fiber optic networks and data centers, but still has no operations or employees. Louks and FiberPoP promised massive returns…
Read MoreFee Rate Advisory #1 for Fiscal Year 2016
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that in fiscal year 2016 the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the Commission will be set at $100.70 per million dollars. The securities laws require the Commission to make annual adjustments to the rates for fees paid under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Commission must set rates for the fees paid under Section 6(b) to levels that the Commission projects will generate collections equal to annual statutory target amounts. The…
Read MoreSEC Charges Former Investment Bank Analyst and Two Others With Insider Trading in Advance of Client Deals
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former investment bank analyst with illegally tipping his close friend with confidential information about clients involved in impending mergers and acquisitions of technology companies. The SEC also charged his friend and another individual with trading on the inside information. The SEC alleges that Ashish Aggarwal, who worked in J.P. Morgan’s San Francisco office, gleaned sensitive nonpublic information about two acquisition deals from colleagues who were working on them. Aggarwal tipped Shahriyar Bolandian, who traded on the basis of the illegal tips in his own accounts as well as accounts belonging to his…
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