Consumer Protections

A New York man was sentenced to four years in prison for purchasing stolen or compromised credit cards and assisting other members of the Infraud Organization in monetizing their fraudulent activity. The Infraud Organization, a transnational cybercrime enterprise engaged in the mass acquisition and sale of fraud-related goods and services, including stolen identities, compromised credit card data, computer malware,...

Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission this week proposed amendments to enhance and modernize the Investment Company Act “Names Rule” to address changes in the fund industry and compliance practices that have developed in the approximately 20 years since the rule was adopted. A fund’s name is an important marketing tool and can have a significant impact...

Oshri tried to stop the release of Vargas's series exposing her alleged participation in a $370M PPE scheme In June 2021, Investor News reporter Aitana Vargas was served with court papers to stop the release of her months-long investigative series exposing entrepreneur Hadari Oshri's participation in an alleged multimillion-dollar PPE scam with conman Marc Lubaszka. In September 2021, Oshri's meritless legal...

Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Wells Fargo Advisors for failing to file at least 34 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely manner between April 2017 and October 2021. Wells Fargo Advisors, the St. Louis-based broker-dealer, has agreed to pay $7 million to settle the charges. According to the SEC’s order, due to...

SEC Charges Allianz Global Investors and Three Former Senior Portfolio Managers with Multibillion Dollar Securities Fraud Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week charged Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC (AGI US) and three former senior portfolio managers with a massive fraudulent scheme that concealed the immense downside risks of a complex options trading strategy they called...

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office today charged a Tujunga doctor for issuing fake COVID vaccination cards and injecting some of his patients with blood plasma he received from donors. “It is disturbing that people, especially medical professionals, continue to use the pandemic as an opportunity to deceive the public,” District Attorney Gascón said. “Fake...

Defendants, including persons barred from the brokerage industry, allegedly sold shares they didn’t own, and pocketed more than $75 million Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced this week that it obtained asset freezes and other emergency relief against StraightPath Venture Partners LLC, StraightPath Management LLC, Brian K. Martinsen, Michael A. Castillero, Francine A. Lanaia, and Eric D....

A federal jury convicted a Florida woman Friday for laundering approximately $786,000 in money stolen from Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers as part of a sprawling health care fraud scheme in Miami. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jesmina Ramirez, 50, of Miami Gardens, laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud proceeds by cashing checks...

Two Florida men were sentenced Friday for leading a nationwide scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for millions of dollars in loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio sentenced Phillip J. Augustin, 53, of Coral Springs, to...

SEC Halts Fraudulent Cryptomining and Trading Scheme Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission this week announced fraud charges against MCC International Corp. (MCC), which does business as Mining Capital Coin Corp., its founders Luiz Carlos Capuci, Jr. (aka Junior Caputti or Capuci) and Emerson Souza Pires (Pires), and two other entities controlled by Capuci, CPTLCoin Corp. (CPTLCoin) and...