Spotlight

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report. The 2021 Internet Crime Report (pdf) includes information from 847,376 complaints of suspected internet crime—a 7% increase from 2020—and reported losses exceeding $6.9 billion. State-specific statistics have also been released and can be found within the 2021 Internet Crime Report and in the accompanying 2021 State Reports. The top three cyber crimes reported by...

Adam Rogas Raised $123 Million From Investors Using Financial Statements That Showed Tens of Millions of Dollars of Revenue and Assets that Did Not Exist Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ADAM ROGAS, the co-founder and former CEO, CFO, and member of the board of directors of Las Vegas-based cyberfraud prevention...

Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that registered investment adviser Van Eck Associates Corporation has agreed to pay a $1.75 million civil penalty to settle charges that it failed to disclose a social media influencer’s role in the launch of its new exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to the SEC’s order, in March 2021, Van Eck Associates...

A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar Crime (Part II) AN IMPORTANT NOTE: On June 22, 2021, Hadari Oshri –Marc Lubaszka’s business partner– filed a frivolous civil harassment restraining order (CHRO) against me to stop the publication of my investigative series “A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar crime,” and any subsequent installments or future media coverage. On...

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: On June 22, 2021, Hadari Oshri –Marc Lubaszka’s business partner– filed a frivolous 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...

Alumni Ventures Group, LLC Repays $4.7 Million Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged venture capital fund adviser Alumni Ventures Group, LLC (AVG) with making misleading statements about its management fees and engaging in inter-fund transactions in breach of fund operating agreements. The SEC also charged AVG’s CEO, Michael Collins, with causing AVG’s violations. To settle the...

Firms admit to wrongdoing and agree to pay penalties in SEC’s ongoing recordkeeping initiative Washington D.C., — The Securities and Exchange Commission this week charged HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. for widespread and longstanding failures by both firms and their employees to maintain and preserve electronic communications. To settle the charges, HSBC and Scotia acknowledged that...

SPACs Are All the Rage, but These Private-Equity-Like Vehicles Are Complicated. Here’s What You Need to Know. “Bet on me” is essentially the pitch that backers of blank-check companies known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, make to investors. While that’s usually not enough to persuade seasoned investors to part with their money, it has worked like a charm in...

Three Defendants Have Pleaded Guilty to Fraud Conspiracy A New York resident has pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to participating in a fraudulent multimillion-dollar mass-mailing scheme that tricked consumers into paying fees for falsely promised cash prizes. According to court documents, from August 2014 through August 2019, Scott Gammon, 47, of Broad Channel, New York, engaged in...

A federal jury in Atlanta convicted a Georgia man and woman yesterday for their roles in an over $11 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud scheme. Teldrin Foster, 42, of Decatur, was convicted of bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured financial institution, and money laundering in connection with...