SEC to Hold Forum to Discuss Fintech Innovation in the Financial Services Industry
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it will host a public forum to discuss financial technology (Fintech) innovation in the financial services industry. The forum is designed to foster greater collaboration and understanding among regulators, entrepreneurs and industry experts into Fintech innovation and evaluate how the current regulatory environment can most effectively address these new technologies. The proliferation of Fintech innovation has the potential to transform virtually every aspect of our nation’s financial markets. The panels will discuss issues such as blockchain technology, automated investment advice or robo-advisors, online marketplace lending and crowdfunding, and how they may impact investors. …
Read MoreOil Services Company Paying $140 Million Penalty for Accounting Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that oil services company Weatherford International has agreed to pay a $140 million penalty to settle charges that it inflated earnings by using deceptive income tax accounting. Two of the company’s senior accounting executives at the time have agreed to settle charges that they were behind the scheme. According to the SEC’s order, Weatherford fraudulently lowered its year-end provision for income taxes by $100 million to $154 million each year so the company could better align its earnings results with its earlier-announced projections and analysts’ expectations. James Hudgins, who served as Weatherford’s…
Read MoreSEC Charges CEO and Boiler Room Operator With Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former microcap company CEO and a boiler room operator with defrauding seniors and others who were pressured to invest in a pair of penny stock companies and promised lucrative profits. The SEC alleges that Craig V. Sizer founded Sanomedics Inc. and Fun Cool Free Inc., which were purportedly in the business of selling non-contact infrared thermometers and software applications respectively, and he hired Miguel “Michael” Mesa to help him attract and defraud investors in both companies. Sizer allegedly provided Mesa with a list of pitch points for use by boiler-room agents…
Read MoreMerrill Lynch Charged With Trading Controls Failures That Led to Mini-Flash Crashes
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay a $12.5 million penalty for maintaining ineffective trading controls that failed to prevent erroneous orders from being sent to the markets and causing mini-flash crashes. An SEC investigation found that Merrill Lynch caused market disruptions on at least 15 occasions from late 2012 to mid-2014 and violated the Market Access Rule because its internal controls in place to prevent erroneous trading orders were set at levels so high that it rendered them ineffective. For example, Merrill Lynch applied a limit of 5 million shares per order for…
Read More”Movie Studio” Executives Charged With Microcap Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three company executives with defrauding investors in a purported project to construct the largest movie studio in North America at a suburban location outside Savannah, Georgia. The SEC alleges that Manu Kumaran, the founder and former chairman and CEO of a startup movie production company called Medient Studios and later Moon River Studios, schemed with his successor CEO Jake Shapiro to make an assortment of false and misleading statements in press releases and corporate filings. They allegedly claimed that construction was underway and projected dates by which the studio would be operational…
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