United States SEC Fines & Charges: 1) Fines Galois Capital Management $225,000 for Failure to Safeguard Crypto Assets for Clients & Misled Investors on Notice Period for Redemption, 2) Charged Creative Legal Fundings CEO Maria Dickerson for $7 Million Lawsuit-Funding Ponzi Scheme Raised from 130 Investors Targeted at Filipino-American Community with 10% to 17.5% Returns Per Month But Spent $2.5 Million on Real Estate, Gambling, Travel & Designer Goods and Started Another Ponzi Scheme The Ubiquity Group, 3) Fines 3 Affiliated Firms Nationwide Planning Associates, NPA Asset Management & Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management $240,000 for Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule, 4) Charged ex-Finance Director of United States Delisted CIRCOR International Nicholas Bowerman for Accounting Fraud
6th September 2024 | Hong Kong
United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Fines & Charges – The United States SEC has 1) fined Galois Capital Management $225,000 for failure to safeguard crypto assets for clients & misled investors on notice period for redemption, 2) charged Creative Legal Fundings CEO Maria Dickerson for $7 million lawsuit-funding Ponzi scheme raised from more than 130 investors targeted at Filipino-American community with 10% to 17.5% returns per month But Spent $2.5 million on real estate, gambling, travel & designer goods and started another Ponzi scheme The Ubiquity Group, 3) fines 3 affiliated firms Nationwide Planning Associates, NPA Asset Management & Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management $240,000 or violating Whistleblower Protection Rule, 4) charged ex-Finance Director of United States delisted CIRCOR International Nicholas Bowerman for accounting fraud. More info below:
“ United States SEC Fines & Charges: 1) Fines Galois Capital Management $225,000 for Failure to Safeguard Crypto Assets for Clients & Misled Investors on Notice Period for Redemption, 2) Charged Creative Legal Fundings CEO Maria Dickerson for $7 Million Lawsuit-Funding Ponzi Scheme Raised from 130 Investors Targeted at Filipino-American Community with 10% to 17.5% Returns Per Month But Spent $2.5 Million on Real Estate, Gambling, Travel & Designer Goods and Started Another Ponzi Scheme The Ubiquity Group, 3) Fines 3 Affiliated Firms Nationwide Planning Associates, NPA Asset Management & Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management $240,000 for Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule, 4) Charged ex-Finance Director of United States Delisted CIRCOR International Nicholas Bowerman for Accounting Fraud “
Galois Capital Management (3/9/24) – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Florida-based Galois Capital Management LLC, a former registered investment adviser for a private fund that primarily invested in crypto assets, for failing to comply with requirements related to the safeguarding of client assets, including crypto assets being offered and sold as securities. The Commission also found that Galois misled fund investors about the notice period required for redemptions. To settle the SEC’s charges, Galois agreed to pay a civil penalty of $225,000, which will be distributed to its fund’s harmed investors. The SEC’s order found that, beginning in July 2022, Galois Capital failed to ensure that certain crypto assets held by the private fund that it advised were maintained with a qualified custodian, a violation of the Investment Advisers Act’s Custody Rule. According to the order, Galois Capital held certain crypto assets in online trading accounts on crypto asset trading platforms, including FTX Trading Ltd., that were not qualified custodians. Approximately half of the fund’s assets under management from early to mid-November 2022 were lost in connection with the collapse of FTX. The SEC’s order also found that Galois Capital misled certain investors by representing to them that redemptions required at least five business days’ notice before month end while allowing other investors to redeem with fewer days’ notice. The SEC’s order found that Galois Capital violated the Investment Advisers Act. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Galois Capital consented to the entry of an order requiring it to cease and desist from further violations of the Advisers Act, censuring it, and imposing the civil penalty discussed above.
Creative Legal Fundings – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Maria Dulce Pino Dickerson and her companies Creative Legal Fundings in CA and The Ubiquity Group LLC with raising approximately $7 million from more than 130 investors through a fraudulent securities offering targeting members of the Filipino-American community across the United States. According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately March 2021 through May 2023, Sacramento, California resident Dickerson convinced investors to acquire interests in Creative Legal Fundings by falsely claiming that she would use their investments to make loans to personal injury attorneys to fund their lawsuits. In exchange, Dickerson allegedly claimed, Creative Legal Fundings would receive a portion of any eventual settlements or recoveries. According to the complaint, Dickerson promised investors guaranteed high returns of 10 to 17.5 percent per month. In reality, the complaint alleges, Creative Legal Fundings did not make any loans, conduct any other business, or generate any returns. Instead, Dickerson allegedly spent at least $2.5 million in investor funds on personal real estate, gambling, travel and designer goods purchases. The complaint also alleges that Dickerson made Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors using funds from new investors in an attempt to keep the scheme going. The complaint further alleges that, after Dickerson ran out of money to pay Creative Legal Fundings’ investors in around May 2023, she shuttered that company, opened The Ubiquity Group, and tried to raise additional funds using similar misrepresentations. The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, charges Dickerson, Creative Legal Fundings, and The Ubiquity Group with violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, including conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The SEC also seeks an officer-and-director bar against Dickerson. The SEC’s investigation was part of the San Francisco Regional Office and Los Angeles Regional Office’s task force focused on affinity frauds, the Western Alliance to Protect Targeted Communities. The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has issued an Investor Alert with tips on how investors can identify and avoid affinity frauds. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California today announced criminal charges against Dickerson.
Nationwide Planning Associates, NPA Asset Management & Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against three affiliated registrants, Commission-registered broker-dealer Nationwide Planning Associates, Inc. and investment adviser NPA Asset Management, LLC, and state-registered investment adviser Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management, LLC, for impeding brokerage customers and advisory clients from reporting securities law violations to the SEC. The firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of $240,000 to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s order, from May 2021 through February 2024, Nationwide, NPA, and Blue Point collectively asked 11 retail clients to sign confidentiality agreements in connection with payments made by the entities to the clients’ investment accounts. The payments were intended to compensate the clients for losses caused by the firms’ alleged breaches of federal or state securities laws. The order finds that the agreements contained provisions that impeded clients from reporting potential securities law violations to the SEC by permitting communications only where the SEC first initiated an inquiry. As described in the order, some of the agreements further required the clients to represent that they had not reported the underlying dispute to the SEC or to another securities regulator and would forever refrain from such reporting. The SEC’s order finds that Nationwide, NPA, and Blue Point each violated Rule 21F-17(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, a whistleblower protection rule that prohibits taking any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with SEC staff about possible securities law violations. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Nationwide, NPA, and Blue Point each agreed to be censured and to cease and desist from violating the whistleblower protection rule. They further agreed to a combined penalty, which was apportioned according to their relative size and financial condition, with NPA agreeing to pay $160,000, Nationwide $70,000, and Blue Point $10,000.
CIRCOR International Inc – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Nicholas Bowerman, a former finance director of CIRCOR International Inc., a formerly publicly traded technology manufacturer. The SEC alleges that Bowerman’s fraud led to the company making misleading statements to the public about the company’s financial performance from 2019 through 2021. The SEC also announced related settled internal accounting charges against CIRCOR. Bowerman worked at CIRCOR’s U.K.-based business unit, Pipeline Engineering. According to the SEC’s complaint against Bowerman, between 2019 and 2021, Bowerman manipulated CIRCOR’s internal accounting records by falsifying Pipeline Engineering’s financial results before they were included in CIRCOR’s consolidated financial statements. The complaint further alleges that Bowerman concealed his misconduct by manipulating account reconciliations, falsifying certifications, fabricating bank confirmation documents, and misleading CIRCOR’s management and independent auditors. The SEC’s separate order against CIRCOR finds that the company failed to devise and maintain sufficient internal accounting controls concerning financial statement preparation, reconciliation processes, and access to bank accounts. Because of these deficiencies, CIRCOR was unable to prevent Bowerman’s fraud and, as a result, overstated by millions of dollars its performance for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 and the nine months ending October 3, 2021. According to the SEC’s order, the SEC did not seek a civil penalty against CIRCOR because CIRCOR self-reported its financial reporting violations to the SEC shortly after commencing an internal investigation and thereafter provided substantial cooperation to the staff, including providing detailed examples of Bowerman’s unsupported and unauthorized adjustments, summarizing interviews of witnesses located outside the United States, and making CIRCOR employees and external forensic accountants available for interviews. CIRCOR also promptly implemented remedial measures, which included strengthening its internal accounting controls, hiring additional experienced finance and accounting personnel, and canceling compensation scheduled to be paid to a former executive officer. The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charges Bowerman with violating the antifraud, financial reporting, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The SEC’s order against CIRCOR finds that CIRCOR violated the financial reporting, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the federal securities laws. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s finding, CIRCOR agreed to cease and desist from further violations of the charged securities laws.
United States SEC Fines & Charges: 1) Fines Galois Capital Management $225,000 for Failure to Safeguard Crypto Assets for Clients & Misled Investors on Notice Period for Redemption, 2) Charged Creative Legal Fundings CEO Maria Dickerson for $7 Million Lawsuit-Funding Ponzi Scheme Raised from 130 Investors Targeted at Filipino-American Community with 10% to 17.5% Returns Per Month But Spent $2.5 Million on Real Estate, Gambling, Travel & Designer Goods and Started Another Ponzi Scheme The Ubiquity Group, 3) Fines 3 Affiliated Firms Nationwide Planning Associates, NPA Asset Management & Blue Point Strategic Wealth Management $240,000 for Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule, 4) Charged ex-Finance Director of United States Delisted CIRCOR International Nicholas Bowerman for Accounting Fraud
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