{"id":2104,"date":"2018-02-28T15:52:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T21:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.institutionalinvestorsecuritiesblog.com\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2022-03-22T15:06:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T20:06:01","slug":"sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tThe US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Muehler and his companies Altavista Capital Markets LLC, Alta Vista Securities, LLC, and Alta Vista Private Client, LLC\u2014all unregistered brokerage firms\u2014 offered broker-dealer services to a number of small business clients. Services include finding investors and raising money from them through an online securities change that was supposedly proprietary. In exchange, fees were paid to Muehler and his brokerage firms, as well as rights to a percentage of the funds raised and equity in each business.<\/p>\n<p>Muehler and his firms claimed that they have been successful in raising millions of dollars on clients\u2019 behalf. However, in a previous SEC case, he admitted defrauding small businesses.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/#more-2104\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses. Muehler and his companies Altavista Capital Markets LLC, Alta Vista Securities, LLC, and Alta Vista [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4005,3760,3761,3741],"tags":[2983,2968],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misrepresentations-and-omissio","category-sec-enforcement","category-securities-and-exchange-commis","category-securities-fraud","tag-alta-vista-companies","tag-defrauding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses | SSEK Law Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses | SSEK Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses | SSEK Law Firm","description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses | SSEK Law Firm","twitter_description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. Muehler, who it has barred from associating with any broker-dealer since 2016. Once again, the regulator is accusing him of defrauding small businesses. Read more.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/"},"author":{"name":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431"},"headline":"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses","datePublished":"2018-02-28T21:52:07+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-22T20:06:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/"},"wordCount":443,"keywords":["Alta Vista Companies","defrauding"],"articleSection":["Misrepresentations and Omissions","SEC Enforcement","Securities and Exchange Commission","Securities Fraud"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/","url":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/sec-fights-stop-fraud-scam-targeting-small-businesses\/","name":"SEC Fights to Stop Fraud Scam Targeting Small Businesses | SSEK Law Firm","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-02-28T21:52:07+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-22T20:06:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431"},"description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against \u201crepeat securities law violator\u201d Steven J. 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