SEC: Lawyers Offered EB-5 Investments as Unregistered Brokers
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a series of enforcement actions against lawyers across the country charged with offering EB-5 investments while not registered to act as brokers. In one case, the lawyer and his firm are charged with defrauding foreign investors in the government’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, through which they seek a path to U.S. residency by investing in a specific project that creates or preserves at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers. “Individuals and entities performing certain services and receiving commissions must be registered to legally operate as securities brokers if they’re raising money for EB-5…
Read MoreSEC Announces Charges for Spoofing and Order Mismarking
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against three Chicago-based traders accused of circumventing market structure rules in a pair of options trading schemes. The SEC Enforcement Division alleges that twin brothers Behruz Afshar and Shahryar Afshar and their friend and former broker Richard Kenny mismarked option orders to obtain execution priority and lower fees, and engaged in manipulative trading known as “spoofing” to generate liquidity rebates from an options exchange. “We allege that the Afshar brothers and Kenny fraudulently mismarked their orders to obtain benefits that they were not entitled to receive, and engaged in spoofing to…
Read MoreSEC: Grant Thornton Ignored Red Flags in Audits
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that national audit firm Grant Thornton LLP and two of its partners agreed to settle charges that they ignored red flags and fraud risks while conducting deficient audits of two publicly traded companies that wound up facing SEC enforcement actions for improper accounting and other violations. Grant Thornton admitted wrongdoing and agreed to forfeit approximately $1.5 million in audit fees and interest plus pay a $3 million penalty. Melissa Koeppel was an engagement partner on the deficient audits of both companies, and Jeffrey Robinson was an engagement partner on one of the deficient…
Read MoreSEC Charges Bitcoin Mining Companies
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with conducting a Ponzi scheme that used the lure of quick riches from virtual currency to defraud investors. According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut, “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies means applying computer power to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency. The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. The SEC alleges that Homero Joshua Garza perpetrated the fraud through…
Read MoreSEC, FINRA, MSRB to Hold Compliance Outreach Program for Municipal Advisors
The Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today announced the opening of registration for the Compliance Outreach Program for Municipal Advisors that will take place in Philadelphia on Feb. 3, 2016, and be webcast live on the SEC website. The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, in coordination with the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities, is partnering with FINRA and the MSRB to sponsor the program. Similar to the compliance outreach programs for broker-dealers and investment advisers, the municipal advisor program will provide municipal advisor professionals a forum for…
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