SEC Charges Operators of Fake Day-Trading Firm With Defrauding Inexperienced Investors
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two men behind a phony day-trading firm with pocketing more than $1.4 million in deposits from hundreds of defrauded investors worldwide. The SEC alleges that Naris Chamroonrat of Bangkok, Thailand, recruited Adam L. Plumer of Las Vegas to help him lure investors to day-trade through an unregistered brokerage firm called Nonko Trading with promises of generous leverage, low trading commissions, and low minimum deposit requirements. According to the SEC’s complaint, rather than using a live securities trading platform, Nonko Trading provided certain investors with training accounts that merely simulated the placement and execution…
Read MoreSEC Awards Nearly $1 Million to Whistleblower
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of more than $900,000 to a whistleblower whose tip enabled the SEC to bring multiple enforcement actions against wrongdoers. “With the issuance of this second award in less than one week, we hope to continue to encourage individuals to submit high-quality tips that we can leverage to enforce the law and protect investors, and they can receive significant financial rewards for their valuable contributions to a case,” said Jane Norberg, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. More than $136 million has been awarded to 37 whistleblowers who voluntarily provided…
Read MoreEnforcement Director Andrew J. Ceresney to Leave SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Enforcement Director Andrew J. Ceresney will leave the agency by the end of the year. During his nearly four years as head of the agency’s largest division, Mr. Ceresney implemented approaches that strengthened the Division’s investigative and litigation practices and enhanced its effectiveness and impact. Under his leadership, the Enforcement Division brought significant cases across the entire spectrum of the securities industry, achieving record numbers of enforcement actions and monetary remedies. “Under Andrew’s strong leadership, the Enforcement Division took its already robust enforcement program to an even higher level, achieving unprecedented…
Read MoreDivision of Corporation Finance Director Keith Higgins to Leave SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Keith F. Higgins, Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, plans to leave the SEC in early January. Since joining the SEC in June 2013, Mr. Higgins led the Division’s implementation of significant rulemaking and other responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), and Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). He also oversaw the Division’s program to review the securities filings of thousands of issuers each year to facilitate capital formation and ensure that investors receive full and fair…
Read MoreFirm Settles Charges for Selling Unregistered Swaps Involving Pre-IPO Companies
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a San Francisco-based firm agreed to settle charges that it violated federal securities laws by failing to register security-based swaps that were offered and sold online to shareholders in pre-IPO companies. The SEC instituted an order finding that Equidate Inc. sought to provide liquidity for employees of private, growth-stage companies in the Silicon Valley and others holding restricted shares of their stock, and its platform essentially matched these shareholders with investors seeking to invest in the potential economic return on those shares. Equidate conducted transactions through contracts that its subsidiary entered into…
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