SEC Charges Brokerage Firm Co-Owners With Defrauding Investors
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against the co-owners of a Manhattan-based brokerage firm. The SEC alleges that as Arjent LLC and its UK-based affiliate Arjent Limited were approaching insolvency, chairman and CEO Robert P. DePalo attempted to keep the firms afloat and maintain his extravagant lifestyle by selling shares in a holding company called Pangaea Trading Partners. DePalo along with managing director and co-owner Joshua B. Gladtke allegedly misrepresented to investors the value of Pangaea’s assets and how their money would be used – transferring the first $2.3 million raised in the offering directly to his…
Read MoreSEC Charges BHP Billiton With Violating FCPA at Olympic Games
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged global resources company BHP Billiton with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when it sponsored the attendance of foreign government officials at the Summer Olympics. BHP Billiton agreed to pay a $25 million penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. An SEC investigation found that BHP Billiton failed to devise and maintain sufficient internal controls over its global hospitality program connected to the company’s sponsorship of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. BHP Billiton invited 176 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises to attend the Games at the company’s expense, and…
Read MoreSEC Chief of Staff Lona Nallengara to Leave Agency
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that SEC Chief of Staff Lona Nallengara will be leaving the agency at the end of June. SEC Chair Mary Jo White named Mr. Nallengara as chief of staff in May 2013. He is the lead advisor to the Chair on all issues involving the SEC, including policy development, rulemaking, strategy, and management of the agency. He also serves as the SEC deputy to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and is the primary SEC liaison with other financial regulators. “Lona is in a league by himself,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White. “He…
Read MorePeter J. Curley, Associate Director in the Division of Trading and Markets, to Leave SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Peter J. Curley, Associate Director for Clearance and Settlement in the Division of Trading and Markets, is leaving the agency later this month. Mr. Curley has headed the Office of Clearance and Settlement since October 2011 and managed it during a time of significant expansion in its responsibilities. The office oversees the division’s clearance and settlement program. Its traditional focus on securities clearing agencies and transfer agents expanded with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to include oversight of security-based swap data repositories and firms that clear securities-based swaps.…
Read MoreSEC Charges Father and Son in $1.1 Million Insider Trading Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a father and son in New York with conducting a serial insider trading scheme involving tips of key nonpublic information in coded e-mail messages disguised as discussions about golf. The SEC alleges that Sean R. Stewart, currently a managing director at a prominent investment bank, routinely tipped his father Robert K. Stewart with confidential information about future mergers and acquisitions involving clients of two investment banks where he has worked during the past few years. The elder Stewart, a certified public accountant and CFO of a technology company, cashed in on the tips…
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