Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Complaint alleging misrepresentation of ownership involving, inter alia, "a Swedish trust" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Vista Financial Advisors LLC and Ruben Cedrick Williams at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging "a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme, affinity fraud, and unregistered offering of securities" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V., of Chihuahua, Mexico; Armando Gutierrez Rosas, Maria de Lourdes Tolentino Roque, Diayanira Rendon Trejo, Efren Norberto Quiroz Gardea, and Luis Ricardo Quiroz Gardea, all citizens of Mexico, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Complaint alleging the defendant "made material misstatements to two entities that would each invest $5 million in Woodstock Partners, a charter school in Minnesota and a real estate fund in Michigan" involving entities in the Cayman Islands, Delaware, and New Jersey in U.S. Securities and exchange Commission v. William E. Miller, of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated as "investment advisers for the benefit of a single client: a wealthy former Russian political official living outside the United States" without being registered with the SEC, managing "a private fund securities portfolio with an estimated total value of $7.2 billion", in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Concord Management LLC and Michael Matlin, both of New York, USA, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Editor's Note: The 'Russian client' is not identified in the SEC's complaint but The New York Times reported that it was Roman Abramovich.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated as a broker-dealer without being registered in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Wilson J. Rondini III, of Florida, USA; Falcon Capital LLP, of the United Kingdom, and Falcon Capital Partners Limited, of Hong Kong, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Complaint alleging "the fraudulent offer and sale of securities" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. NDB Inc., described as a Wyoming-domiciled and based "private technology startup company formerly based in San Francisco and Pleasanton, California", and Nima Golsharifi, described as a resident of London, England, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Complaint alleging "misuse and unreported use of funds raised in a 2016 initial public offering (IPO) as well as Defendants’ failure to disclose millions of dollars in related-party transactions that benefitted Defendant Qi’s family members" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Guosheng Qi, described as a resident of China and Hong Kong, and Gridsum Holding Inc., described as Cayman Islands-domiciled "cloud-based analytics company", as Defendants, and Huijie He, described as a resident of China and Hong Kong, as Relief Defendant, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging insider trading by the defendant "while employed at an international law firm with an office in Washington, D.C." while employed there "as a visiting international attorney from Brazil" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Romero Cabral da Costa Neto at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Complaint alleging securities fraud regarding "his private sale of restricted common stock in ECom Products Group Corporation, a Florida corporation that purportedly owns, consolidates, and manages e-commerce platforms" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Andrew Wyles Waters, a citizen of Australia, as Defendant, and Helen Q. Waters, a citizen of Australia, as Relief Defendant, at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Complaint regarding "Defendants’ scheme that raised approximately $3.5 million from at least 17 investors through a fraudulent and unregistered securities offering" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Christopher Slaga, a.k.a. Keith Renko, described as a resident of Barbados; Q4 Capital Group LLC, J4 Capital Advisors LLC, and Hayden Greene at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Complaint in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Charles Rustin Holzer, of Wellington, Florida, USA, as Defendant, and Maglione International Ltd. and Frontenac Investments Ltd., both of the Cayman Islands, as Relief Defendants, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sisu Capital LLC, of California, USA; Timothy Overture, of California, USA, and Hansueli Overture, described as a resident of Hallau, Switzerland, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $1.4 million on RTW Investments LP for regulatory breaches involving entities in the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, and USA.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $1 million on Corvex Management LP for regulatory breaches "in connection with the firm's activities related to certain special purpose acquisition companies" that, inter alia, involved entities in the Cayman Islands and Delaware.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $3,820 on Michele Mason Lohan, described as “a film director and internet personality known as 'Kendra Lust'" residing in Michigan, USA, for promoting a crypto security known as “Tronix tokens” without disclosing that she was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $168,000 on Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam, described as "a well-known entertainer and internet personality known as 'Akon'" residing in Georgia, USA, for promoting a crypto security known as “Tronix tokens” without disclosing that he was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $48,000 on Shaffer Smith, described as “a well-known entertainer and internet personality known as 'Ne-Yo'” residing in Georgia, USA, for promoting a crypto security known as “Tronix tokens” without disclosing that he was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $40,000 on Miles McCollum, described as "a well-known recording artist and internet media personality known as 'Lil Yachty'" residing in Georgia, USA, for promoting a crypto security known as “Tronix tokens” without disclosing that he was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $100,000 on Jake Paul, described as "a well-known internet personality and professional boxer" residing in Puerto Rico, for promoting a crypto security known as "Tronix tokens" without disclosing that he was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $40,000 on Lindsay Lohan, described as "a well-known actress, singer, and internet personality" residing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for promoting a crypto security known as "Tronix tokens" without disclosing that she was paid to do so.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $103,591 on African Gold Acquisition Corp., described as "a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with its principal place of business in New York, New York", for, inter alia, the entity's "failure to implement sufficient internal controls enabled its former chief financial officer [Cooper Morgenthau] to misappropriate nearly all of the money in African Gold’s operating bank account and to otherwise effectively use African Gold’s operating bank account as his own personal account for over one year".

Press Release by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that Nexo Capital Inc., of the Cayman Islands, has agreed to pay $45 million in penalties for conducting an "unregistered offering of crypto asset lending product".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a civil money penalty of $22.5 million on Nexo Capital Inc., described as a Cayman Islands-domiciled provider of "crypto asset-related financial products and services", for an unregistered securities offering.

Order Instituting Administrative Proceedings in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Leroy King, described as "a dual citizen of both the United States and Antigua and Barbuda" who "served as the Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Antiguan government, from approximately 2002 to 2009" and is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence after pleaded guilty to criminal charges regarding a fraud committed by former banker Allen Stanford

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $1.26 million on Kimberly Kardashian, described as "a well-known media personality and businesswoman" for promoting "a crypto asset security" known as EthereumMax (EMAX) without disclosing that she received compensation of "approximately $250,000".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing fines and disgorgement totaling $30.75 million on Sparkster Ltd. of the Cayman Islands, and Sajjad Daya, a resident of the United Kingdom, for conducting an unregistered securities offering involving crypto.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has imposed disgorgement and interest totaling $70 million on GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes SA, a.k.a. GOL Intelligent Airlines Inc., of São Paulo, described as "the second largest domestic airline in Brazil by market share", for "a scheme to bribe government officials in Brazil in exchange for certain payroll tax and fuel tax reductions that financially benefited Gol, along with other airlines".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing fines totaling $225,000 on SparkLabs Global Ventures Management LLC, of Delaware; SparkLabs Management LLC, of Delaware, and Bernard Moon, of California, for "unauthorized and undisclosed inter-fund loan transactions" involving, inter alia, Cayman Islands-domiciled entities based in South Korea and Taiwan.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has imposed a fine of $11.2 million on investment advisers Hudson Advisors LP, of Delaware, and Lone Star Global Acquisitions Ltd., of Bermuda, which "failed to fully disclose Hudson's practice for calculating and charging certain fees".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $70,000 on Ridgeview Asset Management Partners LLC for regulatory breaches involving entities in Brazil and USA.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $330,000 on Delaware-domiciled investment adviser Garrison Investment Group LP for regulatory breaches involving entities in the Cayman Islands and USA.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $135,000 on BiscayneAmericas Advisers LLC for conduct that involved, inter alia, three Cayman Islands entities.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $1.5 million on Perceptive Advisors LLC for regulatory breaches involving entities in the Cayman Islands and United States.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $300,000 on Bloom Protocol LLC, of Delaware, for an unregistered offering of crypto tokens that, inter alia, involved Gibraltar-domiciled Bloom Limited.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing fines totaling $80,000 on Corona Associates Capital Management LLC, of California; Julian Scurci, of Palo Alto, California, and Giovanni Sergio Scurci, a.k.a. John Scurci, of Riviera Beach, Florida, for alleged "material misrepresentations" involving Antilles Capital Master Fund LP and Antilles Capital Fund (BVI) Ltd., both of the British Virgin Islands, and Dorado Capital Partners LP, of California.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $92,688 on Geluk Capital Management Ltd., of the Bahamas, and Douglas Gerald Fathers, of New Jersey, for alleged "misrepresentations".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and exchange Commission imposing fines of $1 million and $450,000, respectively, on Petroteq Energy, Inc., of Canada, and Aleksandr Blyumkin, of California.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $25 million on Tenaris S.A., described as "a global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipe products and related services, headquartered in Luxembourg", for "violations of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 by Tenaris, as a result of a bribe scheme involving agents and employees of its Brazilian subsidiary to obtain and retain business from a Brazil state-owned entity Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $7 million on Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC for "failure to timely file certain suspicious activity reports between April 2017 and October 2021" involving wire transfers "to or from certain foreign countries determined to be at a high risk or moderate risk for money laundering, terrorist financing or other illegal monetary movements", including "Costa Rica, Turkey, Honduras, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Cayman Islands, Ukraine, and Guernsey".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing an industry ban on Thomas F. Plaut, described as "the sole owner, Chairman, and CEO of Worldwide Markets Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company with its principal place of business in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey".

Plaintiff's emergency application for an order to show cause, temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, asset freeze, receiver, and other relief in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. StraightPath Venture Partners LLC, StraightPath Management LLC, Brian K. Martinsen, Michael A. Castillero, Francine A. Lanaia, and Eric D. Lachow at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a penalty of $23,987,520 on Stericycle, Inc., described as a Delaware-domiciled "world-wide provider of medical waste and other services" for "violations of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977" involving "wholly-owned subsidiaries in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina".

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a suspension on John William Gunn, described as a citizen of the United Kingdom residing in Hong Kong.

Administrative Order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing an industry ban on Global Investment Strategy UK Ltd., described as "a financial services firm registered with and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom, and is a member of the London Stock Exchange".

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has imposed a fine of $50 million on BlockFi Lending LLC, a New Jersey-based crypto lender, for regulatory breaches, including "material misrepresentation" and operating as "an Unregistered Investment Company".

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing an industry ban on Ran Armon, described as a citizen and resident of Canada, for an alleged fraud.

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $30,000 on Nicholas Abbate, a resident of Staten Island, New York, for "his role in assisting others in a course of business that operated as a fraud or deceit upon clients and investors", including a mutual fund in the Cayman Islands that is not identified in the order but which OffshoreAlert believes is the Income Collecting 1-3 Months T-Bills Mutual Fund.

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $1.2 million on Wedbush Securities Inc. for the "unregistered offers and sales of large blocks of low-priced securities by an offshore customer", namely Silverton SA, now known as Wintercap SA, described as "a purported Swiss asset manager", and failure to file suspicious activity reports.

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing a fine of $350,000 on WEX Inc., described as "a Maine-based reporting company that describes itself as a financial technology service provider" for failing "properly to devise and maintain a sufficient system of internal accounting controls at its Brazilian subsidiary, UNIK S.A.", that led to "errors in WEX Brazil’s financial statements back to fiscal year 2013 totaling approximately $85.5 million, mostly relating to the overstatement of unbilled receivables. This amount included about $8 million in suspected theft or unauthorized transactions by former WEX Brazil employees".

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $6.4 million on VTB Capital Plc regarding "material omissions and misleading statements in a 2016 bond offering for which VTB Capital Plc, a London-based investment bank, acted with Credit Suisse Group AG as joint-lead manager".