SEC Charges Houston-Area Businessman in Ponzi Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Houston-area businessman with operating a $114 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors, some of whom were told that their money would fund technology to prevent accidents caused by drowsy driving. The SEC’s case filed in federal court in Houston charged Frederick Alan Voight of Richmond, Texas with defrauding more than 300 investors in multiple offerings of promissory notes issued by two partnerships he owns, F.A. Voight & Associates LP and DayStar Funding LP. While Voight’s latest offering promised investors returns as high as 42 percent a year from loans to small public…
Read MoreSEC Charges Man With Microcap Fraud Involving Shares of Cynk Technology Corp.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Canadian citizen with conducting a scheme to conceal his control and ownership of a microcap company whose price quickly spiked last year. The SEC suspended trading in the stock, Cynk Technology Corp., before the alleged schemer, Phillip Thomas Kueber, could profit on the gains from the stock’s rise to more than $21 from less than 10 cents per share. The SEC alleges that Kueber was behind a false and misleading registration statement filed by Cynk and enlisted a small group of straw shareholders and sham CEOs to conceal his control of purportedly…
Read MoreSEC Charges Operators of Fraud Based in Upstate New York
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two men and eight companies with defrauding investors, many of them upstate New York residents, who purchased the companies’ securities and so-called “charitable gift annuities.” According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. district court in Syracuse, New York, the alleged scheme raised at least $8 million from 125 or more investors in shares and promissory notes issued by the companies over more than seven years, starting in 2007. The complaint names James P. Griffin, the founder and CEO of 54Freedom Inc., both of Cazenovia, New York, and James Wolle, 54Freedom’s Chief Financial…
Read MoreDaniel M. Hawke, Chief of Market Abuse Unit, to Leave SEC After 16 Years of Service
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit and former Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, is leaving the agency after 16 years of service. He will step down in August to return to the private sector. Mr. Hawke has headed the Market Abuse Unit since its inception in January 2010. The unit, comprised of more than 60 attorneys and industry specialists in eight SEC offices, focuses on hard-to-detect insider trading activity, market structure violations, market manipulation, and other trading abuses. Deputy Unit Chiefs Robert Cohen and Joseph…
Read MoreSEC Charges Mead Johnson Nutrition With FCPA Violations
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Mead Johnson Nutrition Company has agreed to settle charges that its Chinese subsidiary made improper payments to health care professionals at government-owned hospitals to recommend the company’s infant formula to patients who were new or expectant mothers. Mead Johnson Nutrition agreed to pay $12 million to settle the SEC’s finding that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). An SEC investigation found that employees funded the improper payments through “distributor allowance” funds paid to third-party distributors who market, sell, and distribute the company’s products in China. Although the…
Read More