The Securities and Exchange Commission recently released an investigative report warning securities market participants that the sale of digital assets by “virtual” organizations are covered by the federal securities laws. Such solicitations and sales, typically effectuated by entities using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, are known as “initial coin offerings” or “token sales.” The SEC...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week filed fraud charges against an individual alleged to have attempted to manipulate the stock price of Fitbit by filing a phony regulatory filing. The SEC’s complaint names Robert W. Murray as the individual who purchased Fitbit call options just minutes prior to his filing of a phony...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently brought civil charges against a former law partner at a large, international law firm and his neighbor for allegedly engaging in insider trading. The pair is reported to have netted in excess of $1 million in ill-gotten gains. In its complaint, the SEC claims that Walter C. Little...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently secured an emergency court order effectively freezing several securities brokerage accounts comprised of more than $29 million in alleged illegal profits from claimed insider trading in connection with Comcast Corp.’s 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. The SEC asserts that in the weeks prior to the announcement...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against two New York City residents alleging they ran a Ponzi scheme in connection with the raise of investor funds to purchase and resell tickets to the Broadway show Hamilton and high-demand concerts. In its complaint, the SEC claims that Joseph Meli and Matthew Harriton falsely told...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that it brought insider trading charges against a San Francisco-based IT specialist who is alleged to have hacked senior executives at Expedia and illegally traded on the stolen non-public, material information. The SEC claims that Jonathan Ly, who worked in Expedia’s corporate IT services department, illegally traded in...Read More

The Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission has always been vigilant in attempting to police the Wild West of the stock promotion world — the supposed dark, underbelly of the financial markets. Historically, the SEC has prosecuted promoters for stock manipulation (pump and dumps), manipulative trading (wash sales, match trades and painting the...Read More

While brokerage firms prevail in most of their promissory note and forgivable loan cases, there are exceptions to the rule when a financial advisor can claim a “win”. Typically, however, the “win” involves the arbitration panel awarding the advisor a “shave” or reduction, sometimes substantial, on the note balance. But, still, even in those “wins”,...Read More

As most individual investors now understand, oil and gas securities, including common stock, bonds and master limited partnerships (MLPs), can be extremely volatile, high-risk and lead to substantial losses. Over the last few years, certain financial advisors and stockbrokers, and the financial institutions for whom they worked, fell in love with oil and gas securities,...Read More

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) continues to aggressively target registered investment advisors in administrative complaints. The OFR’s administrative complaints are primarily focused on alleged violations of the custody and safekeeping requirements under Florida law. In all of the cases in which I have been involved, the investment advisor is alleged to be in...Read More