The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) announced that on February 15, 2012, co-founders of the bankrupt Canopy Financial, Inc., a health care transaction-software company based in Chicago, were sentenced to 15 and 13 years in prison for defrauding investors and clients of more than $93 million. Anthony Banas, Canopy’s chief technology officer, was sentenced [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three oil services executives with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by participating in a bribery scheme to obtain illicit permits for oil rigs in Nigeria in order to retain business under lucrative drilling contracts. The SEC alleges that former Noble Corporation CEO Mark A. Jackson along [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two China-based executives with defrauding investors into believing they were investing in a Chinese coal business when in fact they were investing in an empty shell company. The SEC alleges that Puda Coal Inc.’s chairman Ming Zhao schemed with former CEO Liping Zhu to steal and sell Puda [...]

United States District Judge Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York issued an Opinion in favor of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finding that United Kingdom-based hedge fund adviser Pentagon Capital Management PLC (PCM) and Lewis Chester, PCM’s Chief Executive Officer, engaged in securities fraud in violation of the Securities Act [...]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced filed a civil injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California charging Brenda A. Eschbach of Tustin, California with securities fraud, investment advisory fraud, and acting as an unregistered broker-dealer. In its complaint, the Commission alleged that Eschbach misappropriated over $3 million in investment [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a hedge fund manager and his Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm for their involvement in the insider trading ring connected to Raj Rajaratnam and hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management. The SEC alleges that Douglas F. Whitman and Whitman Capital illegally traded based on material nonpublic information obtained from [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged that a former employee of Takeda Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. traded on inside information about the Japanese firm’s business alliances and corporate acquisitions. Brent Bankosky, a former Senior Director in Takeda’s U.S.-based business development group, has agreed to pay more than $136,000 to settle the SEC’s charges. The proposed [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Glencoe, Illinois resident Kenneth A. Dachman with misappropriating over $1.8 million in investor funds and making false and misleading statements to investors in offerings for three companies for which he was the Chairman – Central Sleep Diagnostics, LLC (Central Sleep), Central Sleep Diagnostics of Florida, LLC (Central Sleep Florida), [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged London-based medical device company Smith & Nephew PLC with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its U.S. and German subsidiaries bribed public doctors in Greece for more than a decade to win business. Smith & Nephew PLC and its U.S. subsidiary Smith & Nephew Inc. agreed [...]