You cannot trade on material, non-public information, and that includes non-public information concerning the growth in your employer’s subscriber base or information contained in unpublished earnings releases. And if you do, you will undoubtedly be caught, and subjected to some very harsh penalties. Fines, a return of three times the […]
Compliance
Does Trading on Information Learned About A Competitor Constitute Insider Trading?
The SEC has been known to attempt to regulate by litigation, a tactic that causes significant problems for their targets, and undermines the integrity of the SEC’s mission. Insider Trading of a Competitor’s Stock? Last week the SEC charged a former employee of Medivation Inc. with insider trading in advance […]
Poloniex Settles Charges for Operating Unregistered Digital Asset Exchange
Poloniex was a web-based trading platform for digital assets, some of which the SEC claimed were investment contracts, and therefore securities. The SEC also claimed that the trading platform was an exchange under the securities laws. The SEC filed charges which Poloniex settled. The order confirming the settlement finds that […]
SEC Charges International Microcap Fraud Scheme Participants
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an emergency action charging nine individuals, including a public company chairman, for their participation in long-running fraudulent schemes that collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars from unlawful stock sales and caused significant harm to retail investors in the United States and around […]
SEC Charges Portfolio Manager with Using Forged Document to Offer Securities
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Thomas Nicholas Salzano, 2:21-cv-12189 (D.N.J. filed June 7, 2021) The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Thomas Nicholas Salzano, of Secaucus, New Jersey, with using a sham loan document containing a forged signature in a fraudulent attempt to entice a $150,000 investment in a real estate […]
SEC Obtains $7 Million Judgment and Bar for CEO and Board Chairman
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Suneet Singal, First Capital Real Estate Investments, LLC, First Capital Real Estate Advisors LP, and First Capital Real Estate Trust Inc., No. 19-cv-11452 (S.D.N.Y. filed December 13, 2019) On July 13, 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered […]
Robinhood Fined $70 Million
FINRA fines Robinhood and orders it to pay its customers 12.6 million dollars
Amec Foster Wheeler Fined $22 Million for FCPA Violations
As the Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against Amec Foster Wheeler Limited (Foster Wheeler) for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of a bribery scheme that took place in Brazil, the company has agreed to pay more than $43 million related to this scheme, including […]
SEC Chair Gensler Seeks to Amend 10b5-1
The new SEC chair believes that 10b5-1 plans “have led to real cracks in our insider trading regime” and has asked the SEC Staff to make recommendations for the Commission’s consideration on how they might “freshen up” Rule 10b5-1. In his comments to the CFO Network Summit, he made a […]
FINRA Reverses Hearing Panel Decision and Dismisses Complaint against Sallah Astarita & Cox client.
In an unusual reversal and dismissal, Mark Astarita of Sallah Astarita & Cox, LLC obtained a full reversal of a Hearing Panel decision in an enforcement proceeding that barred his client for life and ordered him to pay $250,000 in restitution, plus 6 years of interest. The case, which was […]