Tagged: enforcement

March 31, 2016 @ 9:11 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges with infamous VC – G. Steven Burrill regarding a case where Burrill allegedly stole investor money to pay for private jets and trips to Paris and St. Barts. Burrill was sued last year in the Superior Court of… Read More

March 27, 2016 @ 9:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

The SEC Enforcement division shut down an allegedly bogus operation run by John Bivona based in New Jersey. Bivona, via Saddle River Advisors and SRA Management Associates, raised money from unsuspecting investors promising access to pre-IPO tech companies in the San Francisco bay area.  According… Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 3:55 pm By JD Alois  |  

Enforcement is how the bulk of the Securities and Exchange Commission spends their budget and much of their time. There will always be a never-ending trail of ne’er-do-wells and scoundrels looking for an opportunity to separate hard-earned money from good people via duplicitous means. High… Read More

March 7, 2016 @ 4:00 am By Scott Andersen  |  

The recent economic downturn is not the only challenge for entrepreneurs in the EB-5 and JOBS Act industries.  Rather, the challenges include close regulatory scrutiny by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Enforcement.  While both EB-5 and the JOBS Act were… Read More

November 6, 2015 @ 10:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against alleged rogue trader James Alan Craig of Dunragit, Scotland.  Apparently Craig was a bit cocky too, as he tweeted that the SEC would not be able to track him down.  The SEC has used their own Twitter… Read More

November 2, 2015 @ 4:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Lost in all of the excitement of last weeks’ announcement from the SEC on Title III crowdfunding rules was a case of crowdfunding fraud.  According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency halted a “fraudulent oil and gas crowdfunding scheme”.  The SEC has frozen… Read More

September 17, 2015 @ 4:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has told SanFrancisco based Derivabit (aka Coinflip) to cease operating as a trading platform for processing swaps in Bitcoin.  This is the first action against an unregistered Bitcoin options trading platform and draws a line for other possible derivative cryptocurrency platforms. Coinflip and… Read More

June 17, 2015 @ 7:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

The SEC has announced the conclusion of an investigation regarding Silicon Valley based Sand Hill Exchange, a firm that was apparently selling security based swaps to retail investors without a necessary registration statement and outside a national exchange. Sand Hill Exchange settled without admitting or… Read More

December 8, 2014 @ 3:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has shut down two online virtual currency trading platforms that were creating markets in Bitcoin and Litecoin.    The sites were cited as operating without registering as broker-dealers or stock exchanges.  The sites were actually turned off in late 2013… Read More