Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 16th, 2015
(Jan 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Direct Edge Exchanges With Failing to Properly Describe Order Types
January 12, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 2)
In the first case focused on stock exchange order types, the SEC has settled with the EDGA and EDGX exchanges for $14 million over charges that they did not accurately describe their order types. These exchanges, formerly owned by Direct Edge Holdings before being acquired by BATS Global Markets, were found to have offered multiple "price...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 2nd, 2015
(Jan 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Announces Charges Against N.Y.-Based Firm and Three Executives Accused of Siphoning Investor Money
December 29, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 294)
The SEC has charged VERO Capital Management, its president, general counsel, and CFO with channeling investors' money into a side venture. Robert Geiger, George Barbaresi and Steven Downey managed a pair of funds invested primarily in mortgage-backed securities at VERO Capital Management. The SEC alleges that, while in...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 12th, 2014
(Dec 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules
December 8, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 272)
The SEC sanctioned the following firms for violating auditor's independence criteria: BKD LLP, Boros & Farrington Accountancy Corporation, Brace & Associates PLLC, Robert Cooper & Company CPA PC, Lally & Co LLC, Lerner & Sipkin CPAs LLP, OUM & Co LLP, and Joseph Yafeh CPA Inc. While performing audits for their broker-dealer clients, these firms...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - October 17th, 2014
(Oct 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Obtains Summary Judgment Against Defendants in Securities Fraud Involving Biopharmaceutical Company
October 15, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 23114 )
On October 10, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted the Commission's motion for "summary judgment and for partial summary judgment, respectively, against Defendants Douglas McClain, Sr. ("McClain Sr."), of Fair Oaks, Texas, and Douglas McClain Jr. ("McClain Jr."), formerly of...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - October 10th, 2014
(Oct 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Paul T. Mannion, Jr., Andrew S. Reckles, Pef Advisors LLC, and Pef Advisors Ltd.
October 8, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 23108 )
The SEC announced that on September 29, 2014, the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia entered a final judgment against Paul T. Mannion, JR., Andrew S. Reckles, PEF Advisors LLC and PEF Advisors Ltd. The Court found that Mannion and Reckles, co-owners of both PEF Advisors entities, had...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - October 3rd, 2014
(Oct 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC v. Patrick G. Rooney, John R. Rooney, and Positron Corporation, Civil Action No. 9:14-cv-81224-KAM (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida)
October 3, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 23103)
The SEC announced that on September 30, it had filed a civil injunctive action against Positron Corporation, Patrick Rooney, the company's former CEO and John R. Rooney, a promoter of penny stocks. Positron, a microcap company, as well as Patrick Rooney and...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - September 19th, 2014
(Sep 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Eight for Roles in Widespread Pump-And-Dump Scheme Involving California-Based Microcap Company
September 18, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 23087)
Charges were filed against eight individuals cooperating in what the SEC alleges is a "pump-and-dump scheme involving a penny stock company...that has repeatedly changed its name and purported line of business over the past several years." The SEC named Izak Zirk de Maison and Angelique de Maison as the...
FINRA Enforcement Actions: Month in Review
(Jun 2014)
MAY 2014 SELECTED FINRA ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FIRMS FINED
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC (CRD #14020, Chicago, Illinois)
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC consented to a censure and $95,000 fine for allegedly failing "to report short interest positions to the New York Stock Exchange and FINRA on certain settlement dates, and submitt[ing] to FINRA an inaccurate short-interest position report." FINRA found that the firm's supervisory system did not provide for supervision reasonably designed to achieve...
FINRA Enforcement Actions: Month in Review
(May 2014)
APRIL 2014 SELECTED FINRA ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FIRMS FINED
The Huntington Investment Company (CRD #16986, Columbus, Ohio)
The Huntington Investment Company consented to a $25,000 fine and censure. The firm consented to an entry of "findings that it failed to provide notice to the MSRB via the Electronic Municipal Market Access System (EMMA) that no preliminary official statements or official statements were to be prepared for bond anticipation note offerings in which the firm participated."...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - May 9th, 2014
(May 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Three Friends and Business Associates of Former Chairman of Home Diagnostics, Inc., in Insider Trading Scheme
May 7, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22987)
John Campani, John Mullin, and Alan Posner have all been charged with trading on insider information concerning Nipro Corporation's acquisition of Home Diagnostics, Inc for combined profits of "more than $105,000." The defendants were allegedly tipped this information by former Chairman of the Board at...
