Whitepapers
SEC FOIA Office Receives Award for Exceptional Service
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that its Office of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Services was recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice for “exceptional service” by FOIA professionals. The award to a team of 28 professionals recognized their work in handling a growing volume of FOIA requests while reducing the office’s backlog. Between fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2016, FOIA requests to the SEC rose by 38 percent while the number of completed requests in that period increased by 40 percent. “This award is a well-deserved recognition of the SEC’s FOIA team for their efforts to keep our agency open and accountable to the American people by building one of the best FOIA programs in the Federal Government,” said SEC Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar. “We depend o... Read More
Executives Charged With Manipulating Company’s Accounting Systems to Steal Money
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two former executives at a credit card processing company with masterminding a fraudulent scheme to steal millions of dollars through phony expense reimbursements, inflated invoices, and other improper accounting tactics.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that iPayment’s then-senior vice president of sales and marketing Nasir N. Shakouri and then-executive vice president and chief operating officer Robert S. Torino routinely reimbursed themselves for payments that were never actually made to third-party vendors using their personal credit cards. They also allegedly conspired with vendors to inflate invoices and receive kickbacks from the overpayments, and claimed improper commissions and bonuses related to other corporate funds ... Read More
SEC Charges Firms Involved in Layering, Manipulation Schemes
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a Ukraine-based trading firm accused of manipulating the U.S. markets hundreds of thousands of times and the New York-based brokerage firm and CEO who allegedly helped make it possible.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Avalon FA Ltd touted itself to traders as a destination to engage in layering, a scheme in which orders are placed but later canceled after tricking others into buying or selling stocks at artificial prices, resulting in illicit profits. Avalon allegedly made more than $21 million in the layering scheme involving U.S. stocks during a five-year period. According to the SEC’s complaint, Avalon also made more than $7 million in illicit profits through a cross-market manipulation scheme ... Read More
Executives Charged With Manipulating Company’s Accounting Systems to Steal Money
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two former executives at a credit card processing company with masterminding a fraudulent scheme to steal millions of dollars through phony expense reimbursements, inflated invoices, and other improper accounting tactics.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that iPayment’s then-senior vice president of sales and marketing Nasir N. Shakouri and then-executive vice president and chief operating officer Robert S. Torino routinely reimbursed themselves for payments that were never actually made to third-party vendors using their personal credit cards. They also allegedly conspired with vendors to inflate invoices and receive kickbacks from the overpayments, and claimed improper commissions and bonuses related to other corporate funds ... Read More
SEC Charges Firms Involved in Layering, Manipulation Schemes
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a Ukraine-based trading firm accused of manipulating the U.S. markets hundreds of thousands of times and the New York-based brokerage firm and CEO who allegedly helped make it possible.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Avalon FA Ltd touted itself to traders as a destination to engage in layering, a scheme in which orders are placed but later canceled after tricking others into buying or selling stocks at artificial prices, resulting in illicit profits. Avalon allegedly made more than $21 million in the layering scheme involving U.S. stocks during a five-year period. According to the SEC’s complaint, Avalon also made more than $7 million in illicit profits through a cross-market manipulation scheme ... Read More
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 sales to boost Medbox’s revenue. Medbox allegedly issued press releases headlining the phony revenues as record... Read More
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 sales to boost Medbox’s revenue. Medbox allegedly issued press releases headlining the phony revenues as record... Read More
SEC 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 ... Read More
SEC 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 ... Read More
SEC 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 approximately 317 percent and overstated its revenue by 355 percent (approximately $3.3 billion). The SEC’s complaint highlights, for example, that Homex reported ... Read More
SEC Charges Mexico-Based Homebuilder in $3.3 Billion Accounting Fraud
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 approximately 317 ... Read More
SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate to Hold Evidence Summit, Launch Investor Research Initiative
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Investor Advocate today announced it will host an Evidence Summit to discuss strategies for raising retail investors’ understanding of key investment characteristics such as fees, risks, returns, and conflicts of interest. The March 10 Evidence Summit will mark the official launch of the SEC’s new investor research initiative led by the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate, dubbed ‘POSITIER’, also known as Policy Oriented Stakeholder and Investor Testing for Innovative and Effective Regulation. POSITIER seeks to inform the rulemaking process with evidence obtained from surveys and specific testing projects. Under this initiative, the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate has launched a specific study program to examine the to... Read More