an. 9, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Stephen J. Easterbrook, former CEO of McDonald’s Corporation, with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances leading to his termination in November 2019. McDonald’s also was charged for shortcomings in its public disclosures related to Easterbrook’s […]
Enforcement
SEC Charges Former BlackRock Portfolio Manager with Undisclosed Conflict of Interest
Jan. 5, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Randy Robertson, a former BlackRock Advisors, LLC portfolio manager, for failing to disclose a conflict of interest arising from his relationship with a film distribution company in which the fund he managed for BlackRock invested millions of dollars. To […]
SEC Charges 8 in Connection with $45 Million Crypto Fraud
Jan. 4, 2023 —The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Neil Chandran, Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel, Linda Knott, AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co-Op, Inc, and BannersGo, LLC for their involvement in a fraudulent investment scheme named CoinDeal that raised more than $45 million from sales of unregistered securities […]
SEC Charges Former SPAC CFO for Orchestrating $5 Million Fraud Scheme
Jan. 3, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Cooper J. Morgenthau, the former CFO of African Gold Acquisition Corp., a SPAC or special purpose acquisition company, for orchestrating a scheme in which he stole more than $5 million from the company and from investors […]
SBF Borrowed a Half Billion Dollars from his Fund
Interesting article from Forbes – SBF borrowed half a billion dollars from his hedge fund to finance a purchase of Robinhood stock. When Sam Bankman-Fried bought a nearly 7.6% stake in Robinhood, the popular stock-trading app, earlier this year, he financed the deal with more than half a billion dollars […]
SEC Charges Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX
Dec. 21, 2022 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Zixiao (Gary) Wang, the former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), for their roles in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX, the crypto trading platform […]
SEC Charges Former CEO of Biotech Company CytoDyn with Fraud, Insider Trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Nader Pourhassan, the former CEO of CytoDyn Inc., with fraud and insider trading in connection with providing misleading information to shareholders about the progress of a clinical research treatment for COVID-19 and HIV.
SEC Charges Honeywell with Bribery Schemes in Algeria and Brazil
Dec. 19, 2022 —The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Honeywell International Inc. for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of bribery schemes that took place in Brazil and Algeria. The company has agreed to pay more than $81 million to settle the SEC’s […]
SEC Charges Eight Social Media Influencers in $100 Million Stock Manipulation Scheme Promoted on Discord and Twitter
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against eight individuals in a $100 million securities fraud scheme in which they used the social media platforms Twitter and Discord to manipulate exchange-traded stocks. According to the SEC, since at least January 2020, seven of the defendants promoted themselves as successful […]
AT&T Settles SEC Charge of Selectively Disclosing Material Information to Wall St. Analysts
Dec. 5, 2022 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that AT&T agreed to pay a $6.25 million penalty and three company executives agreed to pay $25,000 apiece stemming from charges brought in March 2021 related to the company’s selective disclosure of material nonpublic information to research analysts in violation of […]