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 (“FBI”), and Ivan J. Arvelo, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of […]
Read MoreOn April 29, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a judgment against Shawn Hackman, who was previously disbarred by the State of Nevada and suspended by the SEC, ordering him to comply with the SEC’s suspension order and to pay nearly $1 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest for the money he earned in […]
Read MoreOn July 1st, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) filed charges against banned attorney Shawn F Hackman for violating a September 10, 2002 Commission Order that suspended him from appearing or practicing before the Commission as an attorney after the Supreme Court of Nevada disbarred him. According to the Application filed in federa…
Read MorePosted by Brenda Hamilton Securities Lawyer On March 6, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it had added Billy Joe Adcox, Jr. of Ruston, Louisiana to a civil injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, alleging that Adcox, Scott Zeringue and Jesse Roberts, III engaged in […]
Read MoreOn June 7, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced fraud charges against Michael Trahan for insider trading in the securities of The Shaw Group, Inc. (Shaw), a Louisiana-based energy construction company, ahead of a public announcement that Shaw was going to be acquired by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CBI). The S…
Read MoreOn July 12, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced fraud charges against Victory Ho for insider trading in the securities of The Shaw Group, Inc. (Shaw), a Louisiana-based energy construction company, ahead of a public announcement on July 30, 2012 that Shaw was going to be acquired by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company [&h…
Read MoreSecurities Lawyer 101 Blog On April 4, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two friends with insider trading on confidential information from an investment banker about an impending transaction between engineering and construction companies.
Read MoreLearn how the SEC's Dealer Rule targeted toxic lenders in penny stock markets — and why its defeat means ongoing risks for OTC issuers reliant on convertible notes and death-spiral financing.
Read MoreIn the past five years or so, we’ve written many times about “toxic lenders”. These toxic lenders have been active since the end of the last century and have flourished, providing financing to small publicly traded companies quoted by the OTC Markets. The kind of financing they offer is called “market adjustable” by the Securities […]
Read MoreJust before the end of 2021, Elad L. Roisman, one of the SEC’s five Commissioners, announced his resignation, effective at the end of January 2022. In a statement posted on the agency’s website, he said: Serving the American people as a Commissioner and an Acting Chairman of this agency has been the greatest privilege of […]
Read MoreOn August 2, 2021, Gary Gensler, the new chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced that because he wasn’t entirely pleased with the amendments to the rules governing the agency’s whistleblower program that became final in September 2020, he had: … directed the staff to prepare for the Commission’s consideration later this year [&hellip…
Read MoreFINRA & Penny Stocks When the subject of penny stock enforcement actions arises, most people think first of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or erroneously, of OTC Markets Group (OTCM). The SEC has ultimate authority to deal with violations of the securities laws. It has jurisdiction of penny stocks that are SEC registrants that trade [&hel…
Read MoreOn April 18, 2018 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged John Jumper with stealing approximately $5.7 million from a Pennsylvania company’s pension plan. According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Memphis, Tennessee, on three separate occasions between March 2015 and February 2016, John Jumper stole millions of dollars fro…
Read MoreOn March 14th the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Jun Ying, a former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax with insider trading in advance of the company’s September 2017 announcement about a massive data breach that exposed the social security numbers as well as other personal information of about 148 million […]
Read MoreOn August 25th, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a former investment bank analyst with illegally tipping his close friend with confidential information about clients involved in impending mergers and acquisitions of technology companies. The SEC also charged his friend and another individual with insider trading. The SEC alleges tha…
Read MoreOn June 25, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil injunctive action against Silverleaf Financial, LLC and its sole principal Dwight Shane Baldwin in connection with an alleged fraudulent offering. The SEC action alleges that from at least June 2010 through late 2011, Baldwin and Silverleaf offered and sold off promissory [&h…
Read MoreDown the Rabbit Hole We Go We were recently asked to review a penny stock company called Medbox Inc. (MDBX). The Medbox story has been of considerable interest over the past two years, for the most part because of its colorful founder, P. Vincent Mehdizadeh, its involvement in the nascent medical marijuana industry, and its […]
Read MoreSecurities Lawyer 101 Blog On May 5, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) charged a Toronto-based consultant and four associates with conducting illegal reverse mergers with China-based companies to engage in pump and dump schemes. The SEC alleges that S. Paul Kelley and three associates acquired controlling interests in two…
Read MoreSecurities Lawyer 101 Blog On May 5, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Toronto-based consultant and four associates with conducting illegal reverse merger schemes to bring a pair of China-based companies into the U.S. markets so they could manipulate trading and reap millions of dollars in illicit profits. Reverse mergers are commonly us…
Read MoreSecurities Lawyer 101 Blog Since 2010, allegations of securities fraud involving Chinese reverse merger companies have mounted. By December 31 2012, the auditors of at least 67 China-based U.S. public companies had resigned, and 126 China- based public companies had either been delisted from U.S. securities exchanges or had ceased filing reports with the SE…
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