SEC Charges Business Owner and Stockbroker in Maryland-Based Offering Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the owner of a Maryland-based real estate company with conducting an offering fraud and spending investor money on such personal expenses as his mortgage, country club dues, and season tickets to the Baltimore Ravens. The agency also charged a former stockbroker for participating in the scheme. The SEC alleges that Wilfred T. Azar III sold investors purported bonds in his company Empire Corporation, which he touted as a successful and profitable business with the resources to pay promised annual returns of 10 percent. Along with Joseph A. Giordano, Azar and his company raised…
Read MoreSEC Announces Agenda and Panelists for Small Business Forum
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the agenda and panelists for next week’s Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. The November 20 event will begin at 9 a.m. and include two morning panel discussions. The first panel will focus on secondary market liquidity for securities of small businesses. The second panel will focus on the accredited investor definition. In the afternoon session, breakout groups will develop recommendations on a variety of issues related to small business capital formation. The small business forum, held annually at the agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters at 100 F Street, NE, is open to…
Read MoreSEC and SBA to Host Event on Small Business Capital Raising Prior to Small Business Forum
The Securities and Exchange Commission, in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, today announced they will jointly host an event on November 19, a day prior to this year’s Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, to inform small business owners and entrepreneurs about new options that are and will become available for capital raising under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. The event is designed for existing and aspiring small businesses, including those that are minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned, and will discuss the JOBS Act, which expands the options that businesses may use to raise capital. One…
Read MoreSEC Announces Charges Against India-Based Operators of High-Yield Investment Scheme Using Social Media
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against two India-based operators of an alleged high-yield investment scheme seeking to exploit investors through pervasive social media pitches on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that Pankaj Srivastava and Nataraj Kavuri offered “guaranteed” daily profits as they anonymously solicited investments for their purported investment management company called Profits Paradise. They invited investors to deposit funds that supposedly would be pooled with money from other investors and traded on foreign exchanges as well as in stocks and commodities. They created a Profits Paradise website and related social media sites…
Read MoreSEC Charges California Lawyer and Two Massachusetts Men Behind Scheme to Manipulate Stock of Sports Ticket Broker
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged an attorney in Orange County, Calif., and two men in Massachusetts behind a pump-and-dump scheme that defrauded investors in a Boston-based ticket brokering business. The SEC alleges that Richard Weed, a partner in a Newport Beach law practice, facilitated a scheme to pump and dump the stock of CitySide Tickets Inc., which he helped structure into a publicly traded company through reverse mergers. Weed created backdated promissory notes and authored false legal opinion letters that enabled Thomas Brazil and Coleman Flaherty to obtain millions of purportedly unrestricted shares of stock in the company. …
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