Category: SEC

US trial against Serbian boiler room operators and binary options fraudstersV
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May 13, 2022

Vancouver Lawyer Ordered To Pay $28 Mio Disgorgement For Stock Manipulation Scheme!

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained a final judgment against Vancouver resident Frederick "Fred" Sharp, a former lawyer turned offshore shell facilitator deemed to be the mastermind of a massive $1 Billion stock manipulation scheme involving hundreds of penny stock companies. The appropriate U.S. District Court entered the final judgment by default on 12 May 2022 against Sharp as he failed to appear before the court. In Aug 2021, the SEC has obtained emergency relief in court, including an order to freeze the defendants' assets.
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US trial against Serbian boiler room operators and binary options fraudstersB
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April 6, 2022

Bravo! US court orders Black Banx founder Michael Gastauer to pay over $17 million!

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained a final judgment against Michael Gastauer, the German founder of the Black Banx scheme, for his role in an international scheme that generated more than $165 million of illegal sales of stock on the U.S. markets in at least 50 microcap companies. He is ordered to pay over $17 million. In 2018, the SEC charged Gastauer and six of his US-based entities with aiding and abetting a vast securities fraud scheme orchestrated by UK citizen Roger Knox.
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SEC settles with crypto lender BlockFIU
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February 13, 2022

U.S. crypto lender BlockFi to pay $100M to settle the regulatory case!

Bloomberg reported that the crypto lender BlockFi agreed to pay $100 million to settle allegations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state regulators that it illegally offered a product that pays customers high-interest rates to lend out their cryptos. The company has been under investigation since at least Nov 2021 over the lending product, which offers yields as high as 9.5%.
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SEC Whistleblower ProgramU
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February 11, 2022

U.S. SEC proposed amendments to strengthen its whistleblower program

The U.S. SEC proposed two amendments to its whistleblower program. Specifically, the proposed amendment would allow the Commission to pay whistleblower awards for certain actions brought by other entities, including designated federal agencies, in cases where those awards might otherwise be paid under the other entity's whistleblower program. The second affirms the Commission's authority to consider the dollar amount of a potential award for the limited purpose of increasing an award but not to lower an award.
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Whistleblowing developed into a million-dollar industryS
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November 19, 2021

SEC presents results of the fiscal year 2021 with record-setting whistleblower awards

The U.S. SEC announced that it filed 697 total enforcement actions in the fiscal year 2021, which ended on Sept. 30. This represented a 3 percent decrease over the total actions filed in the fiscal year 2020. The SEC obtained orders for nearly $2.4 billion in disgorgement and more than $1.4 billion in penaltie. It was a record year for whistleblower awards, with the SEC awarding a total of $564 million to 108 whistleblowers.
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Request 4 Information Ronald Shane Flynn investment schemesR
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October 28, 2021

R4I – Fraudulent investment schemes of Ronald Shane Flynn!

In April 2021, California's U.S. Attorney's Office charged California resident Ronald Shane Flynn a/k/a Ronnie Shane, 57, with investment fraud. He allegedly defrauded more than 100 investors out of $14M in alleged pre-IPO investment opportunities and worked with boiler rooms in the Philippines. The U.S. regulator SEC had charged Shane, his Vuuzle Media Corp., and his co-conspirator Richard Marchitto with investment fraud in January 2021. Flynn is on the run and allegedly continues to operate such fraudulent investment schemes. We'd like to know more.
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SEC Whistleblower ProgramW
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October 17, 2021

Whistleblower Business – U.S. awards $40 million to two whistleblowers!

The U.S. SEC announced awards of approximately $40 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance contributed to the success of an SEC enforcement action. The first whistleblower, whose information caused the opening of the investigation and exposed difficult-to-detect violations, will receive an award of approximately $32 million. The second whistleblower will receive approximately $8 million for submitting important new information even though he waited several years to report to the Commission.
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Request 4 Information Safened fourthline cetler and payvisionR
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September 23, 2021

R4I – The Amsterdam-New York Connection with Safened, fourthline, and Payvision spin-off Cetler

Safened is the trading name of Safened-Fourthline Limited, a company licensed by the FCA as an Authorised Payment Institution since May 2018. Safenet-Fourthline Opco Holding B.V. in Amsterdam controls the company, says UK Companies House. A director of Safened-Forthline is Payvision founder Rudolf Booker. SafeNed Deposits B.V. in Amsterdam is also connected to Safened. All companies are registered at Tesselschadestraat 12 in 1054 Amsterdam. The Payvision spin-off Cetler B.V. is also located there.
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Whistleblower ProgramW
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September 16, 2021

Whistleblower business – SEC awarded more than $1 billion!

Whistleblowing is becoming a big business! The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced awards of approximately $110 million and $4 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to successful SEC and related actions.  Including these awards, the SEC's whistleblower program has paid more than $1 billion in awards to 207 whistleblowers, including over $500 million in the fiscal year 2021 alone. The $110 million award stands as the second-highest award in the program's history.
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SEC complaint and the Kai Petersen scam networkU
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June 6, 2021

US SEC settles fraud complaint against binary options fraudsters Kai Petersen, Gil Beserglik et al

54-year-old German Kai Petersen a/k/a Kai Haupt and his Israeli partners Gil Beserglik and his son Raz Beserglik have been major players in the binary options and forex fraud industry between 2014 and 2020. Their scam brands and boiler rooms have defrauded tens of thousands of investors out of as much as $100 million the SEC has alleged in a fraud lawsuit. The US regulator claims that Bloombex Options, Morton Finance, and Starling Capital ripped off $100 million. And these were only three of many other scams. On May 25, 2021, the SEC announced a cheap settlement in this case.
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Yukom binary options scheme facilitated by SpotOptionC
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April 20, 2021

Chasing Scam Facilitators – The U.S. v. SpotOption, Yukom, GreyMountain Management, et al

Broker scams are like icebergs. You can see only the tip sticking out of the water, i.e., domain, website, offshore entities, and nominees a/k/a monkeys. Underwater or in the darkness of the Internet, the real perpetrators and facilitators are hiding. These scam-facilitators are white label providers, the boiler room operators, marketing and affiliate systems, and the payment processors. In the case of the Yukom scam, these were the boiler rooms in Israel and Mauritius, mostly Israeli payment processors, and the white-label operator SpotOption, which provided the software and trading infrastructure.
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SEC complaint against SpotOptionB
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April 19, 2021

Breaking News – SEC files complaint against white-label broker hub SpotOption and its owners

The Israeli broker white-label operator SpotOption is related to the Yukom Case. Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Spot Tech House Ltd (d/b/a SpotOption) and two of its former top executives, Malhaz Pinhas Patarkazishvili (a/k/a Pini Peter) and Ran Amiran, with deceiving U.S. investors out of more than $100 million through fraudulent and unregistered online sales of risky securities known as binary options.
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