Exodus: The Day Everyone Got a New Job

SEC Charges 18 Defendants in International Scheme to Manipulate Stocks Using Hacked US Brokerage Accounts

According to the SEC’s complaint, in late 2017 and early 2018, hackers accessed at least 31 U.S. retail brokerage accounts and used them to purchase the securities of Lotus Bio-Technology Development Corp. and Good Gaming, Inc. The unauthorized purchases allegedly enabled fraudsters, who already controlled large blocks of Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming stock, to sell their holdings at artificially high prices and reap more than $1 million in illicit proceeds. According to the complaint, Davies Wong of British Columbia, Canada, and Glenn B. Laken of Illinois, respectively, controlled the majority of the Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming stock that was sold while the hacking attacks were being carried out, and Mohamed coordinated with Wong, Laken, and others to orchestrate the attacks. The complaint also alleges that Richard Tang of British Columbia, Canada, was involved with both the Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming schemes.

“This case illustrates the critical importance of cybersecurity and of our ongoing efforts to protect retail investors from cyber fraud,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

ESG Funds Face US SEC Probe Over Ceding Votes on Social Issues

US regulators are expanding their crackdown on misleading labels of investment products with a probe focused on whether managers of funds that are marketed as sustainable are trading away their right to vote on environmental, social and governance issues.

For the past several months, Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyers have been peppering firms offering ESG funds with queries, including how they lend out their shares and whether they recall them before corporate elections, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. The practice lets asset managers earn fees that benefit investors, but it can also impact the ability to cast ballots.

Crypto skeptics have been debating online for years. Now they’re organizing.

Every other Tuesday, a half-dozen people hop onto a Zoom call and talk about how to expose what they see as a global fraud phenomenon: cryptocurrency.

The conversation is informal and they talk for only about an hour or so each time, said John Reed Stark, a former government lawyer who participates in the calls. The group, which also includes policy experts and technologists, has no title or official authority, but the regular calls have become a central piece of a new phase of organizing in the movement known as crypto skepticism.

“It’s sort of a ragtag fleet of fugitive minds coming together,” said Stark, who worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission for two decades and now teaches at Duke University’s law school.

SEC deal could end ex-Dewey & LeBoeuf CFO’s long-running legal trouble

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it is poised to settle an eight-year-old civil case against the former chief financial officer of defunct international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, marking a possible end to the legal fallout of the firm’s collapse for its ex-leaders.

In a Friday letter to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan, the SEC said it is considering a settlement proposal from Joel Sanders, who was convicted in 2017 of defrauding the firm’s investors. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Tornado Cash’s Sanctions Show Shift in Crypto Regulatory Focus

The U.S. Treasury Department’s decision to crack down on cryptocurrency platform Tornado Cash for allegedly being used to launder stolen funds—and the subsequent freezing of millions of dollars in assets by one of the largest U.S. stablecoins in compliance with the order—has prompted concerns of excessive government pressure from many crypto participants, particularly those in the decentralized finance sector.

Citing these U.S. sanctions against Tornado Cash, Dutch authorities Friday said they had arrested a suspected developer of Tornado Cash in Amsterdam on Wednesday, alleging the 29-year-old man is involved in concealing criminal transactions and facilitating money laundering through Tornado Cash. The Dutch authorities in a statement didn’t disclose the suspect’s identity and said they aren’t ruling out more arrests.