CA resident charged with multimillion dollar ponzi scheme
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Richmond, California resident Tilila Walker Sumchai with raising approximately $11.8 million from more than 1,000 investors through a fraudulent securities offering targeting members of the Tongan American community across the United States.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately January 2021 through October 2021, Sumchai convinced retail investors to acquire...
LA-Based Media and Entertainment Company Charged with Unregistered Offering of NFTs
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission this week charged Impact Theory, LLC, a media and entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in the form of purported non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Impact Theory raised approximately $30 million from hundreds of investors, including investors across the United States, through the offering.
According...
Former New Jersey Corrections Officer Charged with Crypto Fraud Scheme Targeting Law Enforcement Personnel
John DeSalvo also charged with fraud in separate investment scheme
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged former New Jersey State Correctional Police Officer John A. DeSalvo with fraudulently raising funds through the unregistered offering of the Blazar Token, a crypto asset security he created but that collapsed in May 2022. The SEC also charged DeSalvo with...
SEC obtains emergency order against Utah-based company’s crypto asset fraud scheme
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Digital Licensing Inc., a Draper, Utah based entity doing business as “DEBT Box,” as well as the company’s four principals, Jason Anderson, his brother Jacob Anderson, Schad Brannon, and Roydon Nelson, and 13 other defendants...
RSE Markets Inc. Charged for Operating an Unregistered Securities Exchange
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced settled charges against RSE Markets Inc. for operating as an unregistered exchange by maintaining and providing a marketplace and facilities that brought together purchasers and sellers of securities, specifically equity interests in “collectible assets” such as valuable cars and watches.
The SEC’s order finds that, between July 1, 2018, and...
Former Pfizer Statistician Charged with Insider Trading
Employee and friend traded ahead of Pfizer’s “game-changer” announcement on the success of its Paxlovid trial
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced insider trading charges against Amit Dagar, a former Pfizer Inc. employee, and his close friend and business partner, Atul Bhiwapurkar, for trading in advance of the company’s November 5, 2021, announcement that a randomized,...
SEC Charges Investment Fund Founder William K. Ichioka with $25 Million Offering Fraud
Washington D.C., June 22, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged William K. Ichioka, of New York, New York, with fraudulently raising $25 million from individual investors primarily in California and Oregon by making false claims about his investing success and promising large anticipated returns but instead using investor funds for gambling and to enrich himself. Ichioka...
SEC Shuts Down WeedGenics $60 Million Cannabis Offering Fraud
Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an emergency order to halt an alleged ongoing offering fraud and Ponzi-like scheme by Integrated National Resources Inc. (INR), which does business as WeedGenics, and its owners, Rolf Max Hirschmann and Patrick Earl Williams, who have raised more than $60 million from investors to expand their cannabis operations, but have...
Disgraced businesswoman Hadari Oshri announces Gaya Ventures networking event in Malibu
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: On June 22, 2021, Hadari Oshri –Marc Lubaszka’s business partner– filed a civil harassment restraining order (CHRO) against Investor News reporter Aitana Vargas to stop the publication of her investigative series “A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar crime,” and any subsequent installments or future media coverage. On August 3, 2021, Vargas filed an anti-SLAPP...