SEC Salt Lake Office Director Karen Martinez to Retire From Public Service
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Karen L. Martinez, Regional Director of the Salt Lake office, is leaving the agency and retiring this summer. Ms. Martinez joined the SEC’s Salt Lake office staff in 2002 as Trial Counsel, and she began supervising the office’s enforcement program in 2010 when she became Assistant Director. She was promoted to Regional Director in 2013 and has since overseen the office’s examinations and enforcement cases. Ms. Martinez also has supervised a team within the SEC’s National Exam Program that collects and analyzes data from clearing firms and large broker-dealers throughout the country…
Read MoreSEC Charges Goodyear With FCPA Violations
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its subsidiaries paid bribes to land tire sales in Kenya and Angola. Goodyear agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, Goodyear failed to prevent or detect more than $3.2 million in bribes during a four-year period due to inadequate FCPA compliance controls at its subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa. Bribes were generally paid in cash to employees of private companies or government-owned entities as well…
Read MoreSEC Charges Brothers-in-Law in Louisiana With Insider Trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a former Fortune 500 company executive and his brother-in-law whom he allegedly tipped with nonpublic information ahead of the company’s merger. The SEC alleges that while serving as vice president of construction operations at Baton Rouge-based The Shaw Group, Scott Zeringue traded company securities based on confidential information he learned on the job about an impending acquisition by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company. In the weeks leading up to the public announcement of the merger, Zeringue purchased 125 shares of Shaw common stock and asked his brother-in-law Jesse Roberts…
Read MoreSEC Charges New York-Based Brokerage Firm and CEO With Committing Fraud During CDO Liquidation Auctions
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New York City-based brokerage firm and its CEO with fraudulently deceiving other market participants while conducting auctions to liquidate collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). An SEC investigation found that VCAP Securities and Brett Thomas Graham improperly arranged for a third-party broker-dealer to secretly bid at these same auctions on behalf of their affiliated investment adviser in order to acquire certain bonds to benefit the funds it managed. Under engagement agreements with the CDO trustees, VCAP and its affiliates were prohibited from bidding while serving as liquidation agent for these auctions. VCAP had access…
Read MoreSEC Halts Colorado-Based Pyramid Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an emergency asset freeze against two operators of a Colorado-based pyramid and Ponzi scheme that promises investors extraordinary returns of 700 percent through a purported “triple algorithm” and “3-D matrix.” In a complaint unsealed yesterday afternoon in federal court in Denver, the SEC alleges that Kristine L. Johnson of Aurora, Colo., and Troy A. Barnes of Riverview, Mich., have raised more than $3.8 million since April 2014 from investors they enticed into buying positions in their company Work With Troy Barnes Inc., which is doing business as “The Achieve Community.” …
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