Reverse Mergers & Corporate Hijacking Attorneys

Reverse Mergers & Corporate Hijackings Corporate hijacking, also known as corporate identity theft, of public shell companies has been around for more than a decade. Corporate hijacking is a growing method used by fraudsters to acquire control of publicly traded  shell companies…. Read More

What Stock Can Be Registered On Form S-8?

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Registration of securities on Form S-8 (“Form S-8”) is a  short-form registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).  Form S-8 is available to register securities offered to employees… Read More

Can I List On the OTC Pinks Using a Reverse Merger? Going Public Lawyers

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog One way for private companies to go public is through a Reverse Merger (“Reverse Merger”) with a public shell company.  Securities regulators tend to look askance at Reverse Mergers, fearing they may be used as vehicles… Read More

What is Depository Trust Company?

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Q. What is The Depository Trust Company (DTC)? A. It is the only stock depository in the United States. Q. How do public companies obtain DTC eligibility? A. Issuers must satisfy specific criteria established… Read More

Corporate Hijackings In Going Public Transactions

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Corporate hijackings, also known as corporate identity theft, of public shell companies have been a problem for more than a decade.  Hijackings are increasingly used by fraudsters to acquire control of publicly traded shell… Read More

OTC Pink Sheets l Bootcamp

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Getting Listed on the OTC Pink Sheets Many companies going public for the first time are opting for the OTCMarkets OTC Pink

Reverse Merger Attorneys l Going Public Lawyers

Going Public transactions involving reverse mergers involve unique risks and expansive disclosures.  Hamilton and Associates has extensive experience in reverse merger due diligence and transactions. Traditionally, private companies become publicly traded by registering an offering under the Securities Act… Read More

Does My Public Company Have to Disclose A Wells Notice?

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog A Wells Notice is sent to subjects of a Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) investigation when Enforcement staff has substantially completed its investigation and intends to recommend that an enforcement be pursued.  Under SEC… Read More

DTC Eligibility Question & Answer – Going Public Attorney

  Q. What is The Depository Trust Company (DTC)? A. DTC is the only stock depository in the United States. Q. Why is DTC so important to public companies? A. When DTC provides services as the depository for… Read More

Dead Stock Walking – Corporate Hijackings

Corporate hijackings, also known as corporate identity theft, of public shell companies has been around for more than two decades.  It  is a growing method used by fraudsters to acquire control of publicly traded  shell companies to use in reverse merger transactions involving… Read More

Rule 504 l OTC Pink Offerings

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Rule 504 of Regulation D is a transactional exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) for non-reporting companies when they offer and sell securities. OTC… Read More

Rule 504 l OTC Pink Checklist

Securities Lawyer 101 Blog Rule 504 of Regulation D is a transactional exemption from the registration statement requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) for non-reporting companies when they offer and sell securities.  OTC… Read More

Reverse Mergers 101 – Going Public Attorneys

Traditionally, private companies become publicly traded filing a registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Another established method for private companies go public is through a Reverse Merger (“Reverse Merger”) with a public shell company…. Read More

What Causes a DTC Chill? Going Public Lawyers

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (“DTCC”), through its subsidiaries, provides clearing, settlement and information services for securities. DTCC’s subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) was created to improve efficiencies and reduce risk in the clearance and settlement… Read More

Corporate Hijackings 101

Corporate hijackings, also known as corporate identity theft, of public shell companies have been around for more than a decade.  It  is a growing method used by fraudsters to acquire control of publicly traded  shell companies to use in reverse merger transactions involving… Read More

OTC Markets 101 – Going Public Attorneys

OTC Markets attorneys can help the issuer list on one of the several tiers of the OTC Markets Group, Inc. (“OTC Markets”).  The OTC Markets Group is a private company that operates an electronic inter-dealer quotation system that displays… Read More

Ross Mandell Begins a New Life

Ross Mandell, a former broker and the owner of Sky Capital LLC and Sky Capital Holdings Ltd. was released from federal home confinement in early January of this year. He isn’t letting grass grow under his feet: he… Read More

Toxic Funders: Unregistered Dealers, Short Sellers, or Both?

We’ve often written about “toxic” promissory notes or preferred stock and the unregistered dealers who purchase them. These dealers are not the broker-dealers ordinary retail investors have accounts with. They are individuals with companies of their own that… Read More

Short Selling: What It Is, and What It Isn’t 

Short selling, the practice of betting a stock will go down, not up, has been controversial since it was invented more than 400 years ago in the Netherlands. In the early 1600s, there was only one stock in… Read More

Swiss Private Bank, Banque Pictet, Admits To Conspiring With U.S. Taxpayers To Hide Assets And Income In Offshore Accounts And Agrees to Pay More Than $122.9 Million

On December 4, 2023, Swiss private bank Banque Pictet et Cie SA admitted to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $5.6 billion in 1,637 secret bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere and to conceal… Read More

Why are Microcaps Trading on the NASDAQ and NYSE Exchanges?

In the past three years, some important changes have occurred to how “penny stocks” or “microcaps” trade and are regulated. By the early 2000s, they’d moved from the obscurity of the National Quotation Bureau’s Pink Sheets to a… Read More

FINRA Presents the Warning Signs of a Ramp and Dump Scheme

Just about everybody knows what a “pump-and-dump” scheme is. It’s a type of price manipulation where bad actors use falsified, heavily promoted news, financial statements or other marketing communications to increase volume and manipulate the market price of… Read More

Shell Hijacker, Mark Miller, Sentenced to One Year in Prison

On May 18, 2023, Mark Miller became the last of three men to be sentenced for a securities fraud scheme that involved hijacking several abandoned penny stocks, then using them for an illegal pump-and-dump stock manipulation scheme.  Miller… Read More

Gerald Shaw, a Disbarred Attorney and Convicted Felon, Arrested For Involvement In Multi-Million-Dollar Fraud Scheme

On Thursday, April 20, 2023, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation… Read More

Former top FBI official Charles McGonigal arrested over ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Charles McGonigal, a former top counterintelligence official in the FBI’s New York Field Office, who retired from the FBI in 2018, has been arrested and charged in two separate cases involving his dealings with foreign operatives, including billionaire… Read More

Members of New Republican House Majority Seek to Rein in Gary Gensler   

A week before the 2022 midterm elections, the ranking members of four important committees of the House of Representatives composed and jointly signed a letter to Gary Gensler, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, demanding answers to… Read More

Class Action Lawsuit filed against Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and other Athletes and Celebrities that Promoted FTX

By now, most people have heard about the epic collapse of FTX. The crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (“SBF”) was once the 3rd largest crypto exchange, with an estimated valuation of $32 billion, and is now in… Read More

Nasdaq puts the brakes on IPOs of at least 4 small Chinese companies while it probes suspicious market activity

According to various internet reports, Nasdaq Inc has halted the initial public offerings (IPOs) of at least four small Chinese companies while it investigates short-lived stock rallies of other recent Chinese IPOs after going public. Several small Chinese… Read More

US and China reach deal in dispute over Chinese company audits

The China Securities Regulatory Commission  (CSRC) and U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced Friday that both sides signed an agreement to allow U.S. regulators to inspect the audits of Chinese companies whose stocks are traded on U.S…. Read More

Old School Ties: Donald Trump Sues Hillary Clinton and Many of Her “Cohorts”

On March 24, 2022, as an anxious world hoped for positive results from a NATO meeting convened to address the ongoing war in Ukraine, former President Donald Trump sought to redress the harm he believes was done to… Read More