SEC Charges Marijuana-Related Company and Executives With Touting Bogus Revenues
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a California-based company and its founder with falsely touting “record” revenue numbers to investors and claiming to be a leader in the marijuana industry while some of its earnings came from sham transactions with a secret affiliate. According to the SEC’s complaint, Medbox provided marijuana consulting services and claimed to sell vending machines known as “Medbox” devices capable of dispensing marijuana on the basis of biometric identification. The SEC alleges that Vincent Mehdizadeh created a shell company called New-Age Investment Consulting to carry out illegal stock sales and used the proceeds from those…
Read MoreSEC Charges Marijuana-Related Company and Executives With Touting Bogus Revenues
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a California-based company and its founder with falsely touting “record” revenue numbers to investors and claiming to be a leader in the marijuana industry while some of its earnings came from sham transactions with a secret affiliate. According to the SEC’s complaint, Medbox provided marijuana consulting services and claimed to sell vending machines known as “Medbox” devices capable of dispensing marijuana on the basis of biometric identification. The SEC alleges that Vincent Mehdizadeh created a shell company called New-Age Investment Consulting to carry out illegal stock sales and used the proceeds from those…
Read MoreSEC Economist Receives Award for Academic Work on Market Insights
Securities and Exchange Commission economist Dr. Giulio Girardi today received the CFA Institute Financial Analysts Journal®’s Graham and Dodd Top Award for 2016. Dr. Girardi is a Branch Chief in the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis’s (DERA) Office of Risk Assessment. Dr. Girardi’s award-winning paper, “Interconnectedness in the CDS Market,” helps assess the stability of the credit default swap market and potential contagion among market participants. He co-authored the paper with former SEC Chief Economist Craig Lewis and former DERA visiting scholar Mila Sherman. Past recipients of the Graham and Dodd Award include numerous distinguished economists, including Nobel laureates. “On…
Read MoreSEC Economist Receives Award for Academic Work on Market Insights
Securities and Exchange Commission economist Dr. Giulio Girardi today received the CFA Institute Financial Analysts Journal®’s Graham and Dodd Top Award for 2016. Dr. Girardi is a Branch Chief in the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis’s (DERA) Office of Risk Assessment. Dr. Girardi’s award-winning paper, “Interconnectedness in the CDS Market,” helps assess the stability of the credit default swap market and potential contagion among market participants. He co-authored the paper with former SEC Chief Economist Craig Lewis and former DERA visiting scholar Mila Sherman. Past recipients of the Graham and Dodd Award include numerous distinguished economists, including Nobel laureates. “On…
Read MoreSEC Charges Mexico-Based Homebuilder in $3.3 Billion Accounting Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Mexico-based homebuilding company Desarrolladora Homex S.A.B. de C.V. has agreed to settle charges that it reported fake sales of more than 100,000 homes to boost revenues in its financial statements during a three-year period. The SEC used satellite imagery to help uncover the accounting scheme and illustrate its allegation that Homex had not even broken ground on many of the homes for which it reported revenues. The SEC alleges that Homex, one of the largest homebuilders in Mexico at the time, inflated the number of homes sold during the three-year period by…
Read More