In the United States District Court in San Juan, the hedge fund Aurelius Capital has filed a lawsuit seeking to have Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy case dismissed. Aurelius Capital is the holder of more than $470 million of Puerto Rico General Obligation bonds (“GO Bonds”). All Puerto Rico GO bonds were…
William Alexander Swell and his 7S Oil & Gas, which is a Texas-based oil and gas company, will pay $750K for allegedly misleading investors about commissions and administrative costs and for misappropriating a significant amount of their money. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the oil and gas…
Ex-Gerova Financial Group Head is Sentenced in $72M Fraud Gary Hirst, the former president of Gerova Financial Group who was convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud last year, has been sentenced to six years behind bars. Hirst defrauded Gerova shareholders when he secretly gave away almost $72M of company…
Prosecutors in Massachusetts have filed charges against hedge fund manager Raymond Montoya for allegedly bilking investors of millions of dollars in a Ponzi-like scam. The criminal charges against him include wire fraud and mail fraud, and they come two months after state regulators brought their own charges against him. Montoya…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against four former brokers for allegedly persuading federal employees to roll over holdings from federal retirement accounts into variable annuity products that charged higher fees. Their targets were Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants. The plan is administered by the Federal Retirement…
Businessman Accused of Taking Investors’ Money That Was Supposed to Go Toward Fighting Cancer In a complaint brought by the SEC, the regulator has filed securities fraud charges against Patrick Muraca, a Massachusetts businessmen, accusing him of misappropriating investments that were supposed to go toward helping to develop cancer diagnostic…
Four Firms Are Ordered to Pay $4.75M for Market Access Rule Violations The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, CBOE Holdings company Bats, the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and their affiliated Exchanges have fined four financial firms $4.75M collectively for violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934’s Rule 15c3-5, which is…
According to Andrew Bailey, the head of the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the London interbank offered rate (Libor) will be scrapped by the end of 2021. The British regulator intends to phase out the key interest benchmark, which is the underlying rate for over $350 trillion dollars of financial products,…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced two whistleblower awards this week. The first is almost $2.5M to an employee of a US government agency whose tip helped instigate the regulator’s probe into the alleged misconduct. This individual provided additional help that allowed the SEC to “address” the issue…
In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Petroforce Energy LLC and its founder William Veasey have consented to pay almost $300K to resolve charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in an oil-and-gas offering fraud. The Austin-based company and Veasy raised close to $3.9M from…