July 1, 2017 @ 5:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed fraud charges against Renwick Haddow, a UK citizen living in New York. The SEC said the “clandestine founder” claimed to be the creator of a Bitcoin platform and a chain of co-working spaces located in former bars… Read More

June 21, 2017 @ 12:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

Rich Uncles, a real estate crowdfunding platform, is taking some heat from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a recent filing with the SEC, Rich Uncles is under investigation by the securities regulator. The investigation may result in significant legal expense too. According… Read More

June 14, 2017 @ 2:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has created a new entity to help it better understand Fintech innovation. Announced today, FINRA has created “Innovation Outreach Initiative” to “foster an ongoing dialogue” with the securities as finance goes digital. FINRA says the initiative will build on… Read More

June 9, 2017 @ 9:56 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement Stephanie Avakian and former federal prosecutor Steven Peikin have been named Co-Directors of the Division of Enforcement. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is the agency’s largest unit with more… Read More

June 4, 2017 @ 1:51 pm By JD Alois  |  

There were several interesting presentations at the most recent SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies (ACSEC) meeting last month.  One of the reports came from the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) – the group that represents and lobbies on behalf of state… Read More

May 20, 2017 @ 4:30 pm By Scott Andersen & George S. Georgiades  |  

With the one year anniversary of Crowdfunding under Regulation Crowdfunding occurring on May 16th, business executives and compliance officers at registered Crowdfunding Portals (CFPs) should be actively preparing for their first regulatory examination by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).   FINRA’s 2017 exam cycle… Read More

May 19, 2017 @ 2:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges agains Robert W. Murray, a mechanical engineer from Virginia. Murray allegedly cooked up a bogus regulator filing in an attempt to manipulate the share price of Fitbit. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the… Read More

May 5, 2017 @ 3:03 pm By Cole Lyons  |  

Since the 2017 launch of the United Kingdom Fintech Financial Crime Exchange (FFE), the group has accumulated seventeen Fintech market leaders. The Exchange allows for Fintech firms to share information and work together in order to prevent the prevalence of financial crimes. The FFE was founded… Read More

April 10, 2017 @ 1:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated enforcement actions against 27 individuals and entities behind promotional articles that did not disclose they were paid analysis cloaked as independent research. The SEC said investors were duped into believing they were reading unbiased articles when in… Read More

March 15, 2017 @ 10:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently ordered a temporary suspension of a company attempting to raise capital under Reg A+. Web Debt Solutions first filed a Form 1-A with the SEC back in July 2016. The Offering Circular associated with the initial filing stated: Web Debt… Read More

March 6, 2017 @ 10:20 am By Amy Wan  |  

It seems that at least once a week nowadays, I get a call asking whether an initial coin offering (ICO) is regulated at all, and the question came to a head at a recent Legal Hackers LA discussion on smart contracts by Daniel Rice. The… Read More

January 13, 2017 @ 12:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Med-X, a marijuana-based startup, is engaged in a public hearing this month before Administrative Law Judge Jason S. Patil. The hearings pertain to an attempt to raise capital that was described as the first ever Reg A+ investment crowdfunding round for the Cannabis industry. The proceedings are… Read More

December 28, 2016 @ 7:23 am By Scott Andersen  |  

FINRA recently completed a settlement expelling from FINRA membership UFP, LLC, a registered funding portal that operated under uFundingPortal.com.   The matter marks both early and decisive action by FINRA against a registered funding portal operating under Regulation Crowdfunding.  It establishes that FINRA takes seriously… Read More

December 13, 2016 @ 10:37 am By JD Alois  |  

uFundingPortal (UFP, LLC), disappeared from the ranks of approved Reg CF crowdfunding platforms in early November. Before their removal, a multitude of crowdfunding industry insiders questioned the operation and the investment offers posted on the site. The posted investments lacked transparency while proposing valuations and… Read More

December 12, 2016 @ 10:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Equidate has settled with the SEC for selling unregistered swaps involving pre-IPO companies. The San Francisco-based Fintech firm agreed to settle the charges it had violated federal securities laws by failing to register security-based swaps that were sold online to shareholders in pre-IPO companies. Equidate stopped offering security-based… Read More

December 12, 2016 @ 8:45 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that Enforcement Director Andrew J. Ceresney will depart the agency by the end of the year. Ceresney has been with the SEC for four years as the head of SEC Enforcement – the largest division of the… Read More

November 9, 2016 @ 2:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

uFundingPortal, a Regulation CF crowdfunding platform that was, until recently, a regulated and FINRA approved platform has been shut down. Today, the site is gone and has been removed from the list of FINRA approved platforms indicative of some sort of transgression regulators could not tolerate…. Read More

October 4, 2016 @ 3:08 pm By JD Alois  |  

A federal court has sided with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposing a record $1.3 billion fine against race car driver Scott A. Tucker and his associates affiliated with AMG Payday Lending. Tucker also faces a criminal trial in New York, according to the Kansas… Read More

October 1, 2016 @ 3:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Brian Korn, a prominent attorney in the alternative finance sector, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is on the offensive. Korn pointed to recent settlements with LendUp and CashCall as indicative of its aggressive approach towards financial service enforcement. At the end of 2013,… Read More

September 30, 2016 @ 8:06 am By JD Alois  |  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered LendUp to pay approximately $1.83 million in refunds and pay a civil penalty of $1.8 million. The enforcement action was taken as the “online lender did not help consumers build credit or access cheaper loans” as the… Read More