Financial Enforcement Actions | Week of Apr 17 to Apr 23

Penalties: $17,500.00
Respondent: Brendan E. Cryan and Company, LLC
Violation: During the period of January 2019 through July 2019 (the “Relevant Period”), Brendan E. Cryan and Company, LLC violated: (1) Rule 200(g) of Regulation SHO of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and NYSE American Rule 7.16E (Short Sales) for incorrectly marking 1224 sell orders and subsequently entering those orders into NYSE American… Read More

Penalties: $115,000.00
Respondent: Barclays Capital Inc
Violation: Barclays Capital Inc. violated SEC Rule 17a-3 and NYSE Arca Rule 6.68 (Record of Orders) by failing to record the correct order receipt and order entry time on the brokerage memoranda of options orders and violated NYSE Arca Rule 11.18 (Supervision) by failing to establish written supervisory procedures (“WSPs”), and a system of supervision reasonably designed to ensure compliance with federal securities laws and NYSE Arca rules related to recordkeeping from December 1, 2012 to June 30, 2017 (the “Relevant Period”)… Read More

Penalties: $397,110.00
Respondent: Jozef Gherman & J Squared Invest LLC
Violation: Between June 2017 and July 2018, Respondents solicited and accepted funds from over forty (40) customers to trade virtual currencies (also called cryptocurrencies or digital assets), including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and other alternative coins2 (“altcoins”), through the use of materially misleading statements and omissions… Read More

Penalties: $435,003.00
Respondent: Alliance Steel, Inc
Violation: On at least 61 occasions between October 2013 and October 2018, Alliance knowingly imported engineering services from a third-party engineering company located in Tehran, Iran… Read More

Penalties: $5,000.00
Respondent: Scott David Fergang
Violation: From February 2015 through March 2019, while associated with RBC, Fergang effected 814 trades in four customer accounts using discretion without the customers’ prior written authorization and without the Firm accepting these accounts as discretionary in writing… Read More

Penalties: $525,000.00
Respondent: Oppenheimer & Co. Inc
Violation: From January 2014 through December 2019, Oppenheimer negligently misrepresented cost basis information on more than 1,000 customer account statements and Forms 1099… Read More

Penalties: $5,000.00
Respondent: Frederick Joseph Rock
Violation: Over a four-month period in 2019, Rock participated in private securities transactions totaling $409,200. Rock did not provide advance written notice to Pruco for these transactions as required… Read More

Penalties: $45,000.00
Respondent: Maxim Group LLC
Violation: Over five quarters in 2018 and 2019, Maxim failed to immediately display, route, execute, or cancel 74 out of 100 sampled exceptions of customer limit orders, including 62 orders that would have locked or crossed a displayed quote, in violation of FINRA Rules 6460 and 2010… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Tania L. Smith
Violation: Between May 2016 and August 2016, Smith made eight deposits on five different dates totaling $ 51,400. Smith structured the deposits in amounts below $10,000 to avoid the filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), in violation of FINRA Rule 2010… Read More

Penalties: $5,000.00
Respondent: Ronald Patrick Cameron
Violation: Between May 2018 and July 2018, while associated with RJFS, Cameron engaged in an undisclosed outside business… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: John L. Scott
Violation: In February 2021, FINRA sent Scott a notice to appear for on-the-record testimony pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210. Scott refused to appear for this testimony, in violation of FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Matthew Angelo Siliato
Violation: Siliato refused to provide on-the-record testimony that was requested pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210, in violation of FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010… Read More

Penalties: $5,000.00
Respondent: Elias Moses Hakimian
Violation: In March 2011, Hakimian borrowed $120,000 from a firm customer without providing notice to or obtaining written pre-approval from the firm, in violation of FINRA Rules 3240 and 2010… Read More

Penalties: $70,000.00
Respondent: Solium Financial Services LLC
Violation: SFS violated FINRA Rules 7450 and 2010 by failing to transmit 337,951 reportable order events to the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) from January 2009 through April 2018. In addition, the firm Violated NASD Rule 3010, FINRA Rule 3110, and FINRA Rule 2010 by failing to establish and maintain in a supervisory system, and failing to establish, maintain and enforce written supervisory procedures, that were reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA Rule 7450… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Brian Maguire
Violation: Maguire was a research analyst at Goldman Sachs. During 2020, Maguire learned one of his fellow analysts was planning to upgrade the research ratings of two companies that analyst covered… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Gilbert W. Cox
Violation: Cox refused to provide information and documents that were requested pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210, in violation of FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010… Read More

Penalties: $9,837,000.00
Respondent: YITZHAK D. STERN, a/k/a Isaac Stern; JEFFREY REECE & YELLOWSTONE CAPITAL LLC; FUNDRY LLC
Violation: The Complaint charges that Defendants participated in deceptive and unfair acts or practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45, in the advertising, marketing, offering, and servicing of small business financing… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Andrew T. Franzone & FF Fund Management, LLC
Violation: The SEC’s complaint alleges that Franzone, the sole owner and principal of FFM, defrauded investors by making misrepresentations regarding the fund’s strategy and investments, failing to eliminate or disclose conflicts of interest, misappropriating fund assets, and falsely representing the fund would be audited annually… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Gregory Altieri
Violation: According to the SEC’s complaint, filed on December 30, 2020, from at least 2017 through early 2020, Altieri, through an entity he owned and controlled, raised more than $69 million from at least 80 investors by falsely claiming that the investments would be used to acquire jewelry… Read More

Penalties: $40,000,000.00
Respondent: FCA US LLC; Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V
Violation: The Commission found that from at least August 2012 to July 2016, FCA US, an automotive company, fraudulently misled investors about the number of new vehicles that it and its dealers sold each month to customers… Read More

Penalties: $29,344,197.00
Respondent: BitClave PTE, Ltd
Violation: The Commission found that from June 2017 through November 2017, BitClave offered and sold securities in the form of digital tokens, known as Consumer Activity Tokens (“CAT”), to fund the development of a blockchain-based search platform for targeted consumer advertising… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Ubong Uboh; Tyler Crockett
Violation: The SEC’s complaint alleges that between 2016 and 2018, Ubong Uboh and Tyler Crockett cold-called investors and aggressively touted the prospects of several microcap issuers… Read More

Penalties: $136,683.00
Respondent: Corbyn W. Jones
Violation: The SEC’s complaint alleges that Jones, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Strayne Holdings LLC and 1107 Property Management, LLC, raised more than $650,000 from five investors in two states from February 2019 through January 2020 and misrepresented the intended use of funds to investors… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: AMIT TANDON; Ajay Tandon & SeeThruEquites, LLC
Violation: The complaint alleged, among other things that Tandon and the other two defendants purported to issue independent, “unbiased,” and “not paid for” research reports for small and microcap issuers. In fact, between January 2014 and November 2018, SeeThru received at least $500,000 from the companies that it covered, mostly through fees that SeeThru charged the issuers to present at investor conferences organized by SeeThru… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Edward J. Kosinski
Violation: According to the SEC’s complaint, Dr. Edward J. Kosinski, of Weston, Connecticut, traded in advance of two negative announcements by Regado Biosciences, Inc. in the summer of 2014… Read More

Penalties: $560,000.00
Respondent: Lester Burroughs
Violation: The SEC’s complaint, filed on December 4, 2019, alleged that Burroughs engaged in a scheme to defraud retail investors by selling fictitious financial products and misappropriating the proceeds to pay other advisory clients, as well as for his own use… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Sheng-Wen Cheng
Violation: According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately August 2017 to June 2018, Cheng obtained investments totaling over $400,000 from several investors for a purported blockchain-based Peer-to-Peer lending marketplace startup that would be developed by several companies under his control, Alchemy Finance, Inc., Alchemy Company, Ltd., and Alchemy Coin Ltd. (collectively, “Alchemy”)… Read More

Penalties: $2,207,249.00
Respondent: Hai Khoa Dang
Violation: According to the SEC’s complaint, filed on September 10, 2020, Dang gained complete control over the couple’s brokerage accounts and misled them about his risky trading strategies, hiding the fact that he had depleted virtually all of their retirement savings within ten months… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Malhaz Pinhas Patarkazishvili a/k/a Pini Peter; Ran Amiran & Spot Tech House, Ltd f/k/a Spot Option, Ltd
Violation: The SEC alleges that the defendants developed nearly all of the products and services necessary to offer and sell binary options through the internet, including a proprietary trading platform, and that they licensed these products and services to entities they called “white label partners,” who directly marketed the binary options. According to the complaint, Spot Option instructed its white label partners to aggressively market the binary options as a highly profitable investment for retail investors… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Martin Silver
Violation: The Commission’s complaint alleged that Silver engaged in a scheme to defraud IIG’s investment advisory clients. Specifically, the complaint alleged that Silver concealed losses in the portfolio of its flagship hedge fund by overstating the value of certain defaulted trade finance loans and by replacing defaulted loans with fake loans… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: JAIME M. WESTENBARGER
Violation: The Michigan Order found that when Westenbarger was a registered representative and an investment adviser representative of a registered broker-dealer and a registered investment adviser, respectively, he offered two investors from Michigan an investment in a “corporate note” for $200,000 and that he accepted a check from these two investors in that amount to be invested in the corporate note… Read More

Penalties: N/A
Respondent: Dean Mustaphalli
Violation: On December 12, 2019, Respondent pled guilty to 18 counts of grand larceny in the second degree in violation of New York Penal Law (“NYPL”) 155.40-1, one count of forgery in the second degree in violation of NYPL 170.10-1, one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree in violation of NYPL 170.25, two counts of scheme to defraud in the first degree in violation of NYPL 190.65, one count of falsifying business records in violation of NYPL 170.10-0, and one count of violations of the Martin Act in violation of New York General Business Law 352-C-06 before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in New York v. Mustaphalli, Indictment No. 559-2018. On October 16, 2020, Respondent was sentenced to a prison term of 3 to 9 years imprisonment… Read More

Penalties: $6,108,583.00
Respondent: Morrie Tobin; Milan Patel; Matthew Ledvina & Environmental Packaging Technologies Holdings, Inc; CURE Pharmaceutical Holding Corp
Violation: According to the SEC’s complaint, Morrie Tobin, a California resident, secretly controlled and owned substantially all of the stock in two public companies, Environmental Packaging Technologies Holdings, Inc. and CURE Pharmaceutical Holding Corp, and organized a scheme to sell that stock without disclosing his identity The complaint alleged that Milan Patel and Matthew Ledvina, both formerly attorneys at an international tax law firm, facilitated Tobin’s scheme by hiding Tobin’s ownership and control over the companies… Read More

Click here to see the full list of SEC Enforcement Documents