The Securities and Exchange Commission said that an asset freeze has been imposed on Lobsang Dargey, who is accused of bilking Chinese investors looking to obtain residency in the United States through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program. The regulator contends that Dargey and his Path America companies raised $125…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has put out an alert warning brokerage firms that they need to better monitor the sale of high risk complex investments to retail investors. The regulator said that its analysis of 26,600 transactions of $1.25 billion of structured securities products revealed that there has been…
The first checks for compensation in the $1 billion global Ponzi scam involving TelexFree Inc. have gone out to over 14,000 investors in Massachusetts. Victims received $2.9 million in total as part of a settlement with Fidelity Cooperative Bank. This is only a small portion of the alleged losses. About…
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. has introduced a bill that would give the Securities and Exchange Commission a longer period of time to uncover and impose penalties for financial fraud. Under his proposal the statute of limitations for pursuing civil penalties would be extended from five years to ten years.…
A federal jury has found two men accused of running a financial scam that bilked investors, including several National Hockey League players, of $30 million guilty of money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud. The trial against Phillip Kenner, an Arizona financial adviser, and Tommy Constantine, a former professional race car…
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is charging Securities America with inadequate supervision of a broker who is accused of using a “grossly deceptive” radio ad campaign to target older investors. The state regulator said that the financial firm shouldn’t have approved the spots that Barry Armstrong ran on…
A federal grand jury has indicted ex-Bank of Oswego president and CEO Dan Heine and former CFO Diana Yates with running a widespread, five-year conspiracy to hide the Oregon-based bank’s troubled financial state from regulators. According to the indictments, the two of them authorized secret deals to conceal bad loans…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) would pay close to $30 million, including a $10 million penalty, to settle charges that it misallocated over $17 million in “broken deal” expenses to its flagship private equity funds. According to the regulator, over a…
The SEC is charging Ireeco LLC and Ireeco Limited with serving as unregistered brokers for over 150 foreign investors. The two firms are accused of illegally brokering over $79M of investments by those who wanted to become U.S. residents under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The program offers a way…
Earlier this year, our securities law firm published a blog post reporting that San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan had filed a Texas securities case against financial representative Charles Banks. Duncan contends that due to unsuitable recommendations made to him by Banks, he allegedly lost some $25 million. Banks, a private-equity…