Tag Archives: Boca Raton Securities Fraud Attorneys
SEC Cannot Be Sued for Failing to Stop Ponzi Scheme Sooner
Federal securities regulators are responsible for identifying and stopping fraud that harms investors. But what happens when the regulators act too late? Can the government be held responsible for the negligence of its own officials when they fail to act on obvious warning signs of securities fraud? A federal appeals court recently addressed this… Read More »
SEC Announces Million-Dollar Whistleblower Award to Compliance Officer
Washington D.C., April 22, 2015 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of more than a million dollars to a compliance professional who provided information that assisted the SEC in an enforcement action against the whistleblower’s company. The award involves a compliance officer who had a reasonable basis to believe that… Read More »
SEC Announces Revised Rules for Smaller Securities Sales
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently adopted new regulations designed to increase smaller companies’ access to capital markets. The SEC revised one of its oldest set of rules, known as Regulation A, which exempts certain “small issues of securities” from the normal registration process. SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar formally announced the new… Read More »
The Role of “Whistleblowers” in Securities Fraud Cases
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) in 2010 in response to the post-2007 financial crisis. The DFA included a number of provisions designed to strengthen regulation of the securities and financial industries. One such provision involved the use of “whistleblowers” in securities fraud investigations. Broadly defined, a whistleblower is anyone who provides “information relating… Read More »
SEC Says Buffalo Man Running Ponzi Scheme
On Feb. 27, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an emergency order from a federal judge in Buffalo, freezing the assets of a venture capital fund manager accused of running a “Ponzi-like scheme.” Regulators believe the fund manager made false promises to investors about his ability to obtain pre-IPO shares of popular stocks… Read More »
SEC Puts a Stop to Colorado-Based Pyramid Scheme
If you are considering investing with a company that feels the need to proclaim, “We are not a pyramid scheme,” you may, in fact, be dealing with a pyramid (or Ponzi) scheme. Investors in one Colorado-based company probably wish they had considered that possibility as federal securities regulators recently moved in on the firm… Read More »
Canadian Jury Convicts Two Men for Running $400 Million Ponzi Scheme
On Feb. 14, a jury in Calgary, Alberta convicted Gary Sorenson and Milowe Brost of securities fraud for their role in what has been described as the largest Ponzi scheme in Canadian history. Prosecutors for the Canadian Crown presented evidence Sorenson and Brost defrauded more than 3,000 people, including a number of U.S. residents,… Read More »
SEC, New York Charge Hedge Fund Manager With Fraud
On Feb. 13, New York officials arrested and charged Moazzam Ifzal Malik, also known as Mark Malik, with 28 felony counts arising from his operation of what federal and state officials allege is a fraudulent hedge fund. Malik is the CEO and fund manager of Wolf Hedge Investment Management, an entity the authorities claim… Read More »
SEC Warns Investors Not to Fall for “Prime Bank” Scams
Securities fraud frequently involves misleading potential investors by using complicated-sounding language. After all, the more complex the investment sounds, the more likely it is to earn enormous profits, right? At least that is what the perpetrators of the fraud want you to believe. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has identified a number of… Read More »
SEC Advises Brokers, Investors on Risks of Hacking and Other “Cyber” Attacks
“Cybersecurity” is a major issue that affects many large, publicly traded companies. Recently Anthem, Inc., the nation’s second-largest health insurer, reported a major breach of its security. Hackers managed to acquire personal data—Social Security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses, et cetera—on millions of Anthem customers. This attack comes just a couple weeks after President Obama… Read More »