The SEC has issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters, Inc., or PoQ, regarding the sale of gaming tokens called Quarters to be used on the Quarters Platform to play Participating Games....more
The SEC announced charges against Facebook Inc. for making misleading disclosures regarding the risk of misuse of Facebook user data. According to the SEC, for more than two years, Facebook’s public disclosures presented the...more
7/25/2019
/ Data Management ,
Data Transfers ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Facebook ,
Internal Controls ,
Personal Data ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Disclosure ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Social Media
In a public statement, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton discussed the historical interplay between settlement offers and related waiver requests. Chair Clayton noted...more
It has been widely reported that the SEC sued Kik Interactive Inc. for conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens. The SEC charges that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering...more
The SEC awarded more than $4.5 million to a whistleblower whose tip triggered the company to review the allegations as part of an internal investigation and subsequently report the whistleblower’s allegations to the SEC and...more
The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Motion for Relief from Judgment with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Barry D. Romeril. Mr. Romeril served as the Chief Financial Officer...more
5/8/2019
/ Acceleration ,
Consent Order ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Errors and Omissions Policy ,
First Amendment ,
Gag Orders ,
Investment Fraud ,
Motion for Relief ,
Revenue Growth ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Xerox
The SEC charged fifteen individuals with acting as unregistered brokers or aiding-and-abetting such activity in connection with Intertech Solutions, Inc.’s fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings....more
4/11/2019
/ Aiding and Abetting ,
Anti-Fraud Provisions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment ,
Offering Fraud ,
Offerings ,
Registration Requirement ,
Retail Investors ,
Sales Commissions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Unregistered Brokers ,
Unregistered Securities
The U.S. Supreme Court considered the extent of liability under Rule 10b-5 and other rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission and related statutes in Lorenzo v. Securities and Exchange Commission. The facts of the...more
3/28/2019
/ Appeals ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Statements ,
Fines ,
Intent to Defraud ,
Investment Banks ,
Lorenzo v SEC ,
Material Dissemination ,
Misleading Statements ,
Reaffirmation ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Suspensions
Elon Musk, in a court filing, offered the following reasons why he should not be held in contempt of court for violating a court Order a recent tweet...more
3/12/2019
/ Automotive Industry ,
Criminal Contempt ,
Elon Musk ,
Embedded Tweets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Internal Controls ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations ,
Social Media ,
Tesla ,
Twitter
The CFTC announced an Enforcement Advisory on self-reporting and cooperation for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, or CEA, involving foreign corrupt practices. ...more
3/12/2019
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Bribery ,
CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Self-Reporting ,
White Collar Crimes
The SEC announced settled charges against four public companies for failing to maintain internal control over financial reporting, or ICFR, for seven to 10 consecutive annual reporting periods. ...more
The SEC brought a settled enforcement action against ADT Inc. because it did not afford equal or greater prominence to comparable GAAP financial measures in two of its earnings releases containing non-GAAP financial...more
CoinAlpha Advisors LLC was formed for the purpose of investing in digital assets. From October 2017 through May 2018 CoinAlpha raised approximately $600,000 from 22 investors, residing in at least five U.S. states....more
12/10/2018
/ Accredited Investors ,
Capital Raising ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
General Solicitation ,
Investors ,
Public Offerings ,
Regulation D ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rule 506 Offerings ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Unregistered Securities
In SEC v. Blockvest, LLC, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California examined the SEC’s argument for a preliminary injunction halting an initial coin offering, or ICO....more
12/3/2018
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Token Sales ,
Unregistered Securities
In perhaps the fastest moving SEC enforcement action of all time, the SEC charged Elon Musk with securities fraud on September 27, 2018 after settlement agreements reportedly fell apart....more
10/1/2018
/ Automotive Industry ,
Elon Musk ,
Embedded Tweets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure-to-File ,
Internal Controls ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations ,
Social Media ,
Tesla ,
Twitter
The SEC charged a hedge fund sponsor that manages private funds and separately managed accounts focused on global distressed, special situations, and opportunistic investing with failure to timely file a Schedule 13D. The...more
The SEC has targeted disclosure of executive perquisites in another settled enforcement action. According to the SEC, the issuer did not follow the Commission’s standard regarding disclosure of perquisites, which provides...more
The SEC entered into an agreed settlement with a private equity group for receiving accelerated fees without the consent of all necessary parties prior to the commitment of capital....more
In Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC brought an administrative action before one of its administrative law judges, or ALJ’s, against Raymond Lucia for allegedly using misleading slide presentations to...more
6/25/2018
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Lucia v SEC ,
Officers of the United States ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Special Trial Judges (STJs)
The House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investments held a hearing which reviewed two pieces of legislation that have been introduced...more
The SEC announced settlements with 13 registered private fund investment advisers who repeatedly failed to provide required information that the agency uses to monitor risk. ...more
6/4/2018
/ Annual Reports ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure-to-File ,
Form PF ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Private Funds ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement
Subject to its limits, Rule 701 permits non-reporting companies to grant employees equity without registration under the Securities Act of 1933. ...more
3/19/2018
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Credit Karma ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rule 701 ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stock Options
According to the SEC in an order settling an enforcement action, Alan Shortall was CEO and Chairman of Unilife Corporation, a Nasdaq listed issuer. According to the SEC, Shortall arranged for Unilife to make personal payments...more
12/27/2017
/ Advances ,
Corporate Officers ,
Directors ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Form 10-K ,
Loans ,
Misleading Statements ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act
The SEC charged a biopharmaceutical company with committing a series of accounting controls and disclosure violations, including the failure to properly report as compensation millions of dollars in perks provided to its...more
Munchee Inc., a California-based company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service halted its initial coin offering (ICO) after being contacted by the SEC. Munchee Inc....more
12/12/2017
/ Blockchain ,
Capital Raising ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Token Sales ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Virtual Currency