SEC Charges Bank Leumi With Conducting Unregistered U.S. Cross-Border Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Israeli-based Bank Leumi has agreed to pay $1.6 million and admit wrongdoing to settle charges that it provided investment advice and induced securities transactions for U.S. customers for more than a decade without registering as an investment adviser or broker-dealer as required under U.S. securities laws. The SEC’s order finds that Bank Leumi maintained several hundred securities accounts that were beneficially owned by U.S. customers and managed more than $500 million in securities assets for U.S. customers. To manage and mitigate the risk of violating U.S. laws, Bank Leumi began exiting the…
Read MoreErnst & Young to Pay $11.8 Million for Audit Failures
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Ernst & Young LLP has agreed to pay more than $11.8 million to settle charges related to failed audits of an oil services company that used deceptive income tax accounting to inflate earnings. Ernst & Young’s payment will be combined with the $140 million penalty agreed to last month by the audit client, Weatherford International, and money collected from two charged Weatherford employees for a total of more than $152 million that will be returned to investors who were harmed by the accounting fraud. Also charged in the SEC’s order are the…
Read MoreSEC Charges Energy Services Company and Executives With Accounting Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged an energy services provider and four executives for their roles in an accounting fraud in which the company recognized revenue earlier than allowed in order to meet internal targets. Lime Energy Co. agreed to pay $1 million to settle the charges, and its four now-former executives also agreed to settlements. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Lime Energy improperly recognized $20 million in revenue from at least 2010 to 2012. Two then-executives in the company’s utilities division – vice president of operations Joaquin Alberto Dos Santos Almeida and director of operations Karan Raina –…
Read MoreMelissa Hodgman Named Associate Director in SEC Enforcement Division
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Melissa Hodgman has been named Associate Director in the SEC’s Enforcement Division. Ms. Hodgman succeeds Stephen L. Cohen, who left the SEC in June. Ms. Hodgman began working in the Enforcement Division in 2008 as a staff attorney. She joined the Market Abuse Unit in 2010 and was promoted to Assistant Director in 2012. Ms. Hodgman has investigated or supervised dozens of enforcement recommendations spanning a variety of misconduct, including: The SEC’s first case against a brokerage firm for failing to file SARs when appropriate. Fraud charges against a Wall Street CEO…
Read MoreCompany to Pay Penalty for Stock Picking Game That Was An Unregistered Swap
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a New York-based company has agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty for illegally offering complex derivatives products to retail investors through mobile phone games that were described as “fantasy sports for stocks.” An SEC investigation found that Forcerank LLC failed to file a registration statement for what constituted a security-based swap offering, and the company also failed to sell the contracts through a national securities exchange. Both are requirements under the Dodd-Frank Act to ensure information about an offering is fully transparent to retail investors and the transactions are limited to platforms…
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