Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud charges against Jonathan Larmore for allegedly looting $35 million from real estate funds he advised. Larmore is a real estate investor, an investment adviser,...more
The issue of whether the sales of digital assets constitute investment contracts (and therefore securities) remains at the forefront of SEC regulatory issues. Yesterday, in SEC v. Terraform Labs, a federal judge in New York...more
On January 10, 2023, the SEC filed a subpoena enforcement action against Covington, a large law firm that was victimized by the so-called Hafnium cyberattack by Chinese state actors. Hafnium reportedly was engaged in...more
Recent Enforcement Action -
The requirement that financial firms preserve books and records is nothing new. But how do such firms keep track of employees’ communications on applications like Signal or WhatsApp? Those...more
On July 13, the SEC announced charges against an array of participants in a de-SPAC transaction. Among those charged are the SPAC, the SPAC’s sponsor, the SPAC’s CEO, the merger target, and the merger target’s CEO.
The...more
Reuters reported today that the SEC is investigating last year’s hack of SolarWinds, focusing on whether SEC registrants failed to disclose that they had been impacted by the cyber breach. According to the article, the SEC...more
On April 1, 2021, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) announced the entry of a Consent Order against an SEC registered investment adviser named Independent Financial Group, LLC (“Independent”). The TSSB’s action may...more
As we discussed in our recent post “What to Expect from the SEC Under the Biden Administration,” market participants can expect a more vigorous SEC enforcement program under the new administration. President Biden’s nominee...more
3/11/2021
/ Asset Valuations ,
Biden Administration ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fees ,
Fund Managers ,
General Solicitation ,
Investment Adviser ,
Personal Information ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Transparency
The dust has settled on the 2020 election, and the Biden administration has begun pressing forward with its policy objectives. Critical to achieving such objectives is the Democrats’ control of both the House of...more
2/9/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Blockchain ,
Broken Windows ,
CFTC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Currency ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
FinTech ,
Insider Trading ,
NDAA ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Wall Street ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblowers
Earlier this week, a near-unanimous United States Supreme Court issued its much anticipated ruling on the SEC’s ability to obtain disgorgement of ill-gotten gains in cases involving securities fraud, FCPA violations, and...more
6/26/2020
/ 15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(5) ,
Administrative Authority ,
Business Expenses ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equitable Relief ,
Kokesh v SEC ,
Lack of Authority ,
Liu v Securities and Exchange Commission ,
Net Profits ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Hollywood martial arts sensei Steven Seagal was recently karate-chopped by the SEC for his alleged undisclosed payments for Twitter-touting a security that was being offered and sold in an initial coin offering. In a settled...more
2/28/2020
/ Bitcoin ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Financial Promotions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Contract ,
Investors ,
Popular ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Token Sales
A former broker at a national brokerage firm was recently sanctioned by FINRA after accepting instructions to transfer assets out of a client account. The problem? The instructions were actually sent by an imposter who had...more