Securities Industry Commentator by Bill Singer Esq

Acquisitions of nascent competitors can be procompetitive in certain instances and anticompetitive in others.  They can be beneficial to the extent they combine complementary technologies or bring products and services to market that would not have been made available to consumers otherwise.  It is not possible to describe here each way that a transaction may harm competition in a digital market, but I will note the potential for mischief if the purpose and effect of an acquisition is to block potential competitors, protect a monopoly, or otherwise harm competition by reducing consumer choice, increasing prices, diminishing or slowing innovation, or reducing quality.  Such circumstances may raise the Antitrust Division's suspicions.

In December 2017, Kim formed and incorporated an entity ("S Corporation"), for which he was the sole shareholder and director, to engage in cryptocurrency mining activities. Kim: (i) opened and funded a bank account for S Corporation; (ii) entered into a contract on behalf of S Corporation with another entity that was to build and operate computer hardware and software for S Corporation's cryptocurrency activities; and (iii) transferred funds from S Corporation to that entity pursuant to the contract. 

Kim failed to provide written notice to Merrill of the above-described activity. 

[B]eginning in November 2013 and continuing through September 2017, Warren devised and operated a scheme to defraud investors by offering investment opportunities in solar farm projects purportedly owned by CEA.  To attract investors, Warren claimed that CEA owned working solar farms throughout the state of North Carolina and further claimed that Duke Power agreed to purchase the energy produced by CEA's farms and that he would use the revenue to pay dividends to investors. Warren recruited 60 investors for its private investment funds: Utility Solar IV and Utility Income Fund and made numerous false misrepresentations, including that CEA owned several solar farms and made millions of dollars selling solar energy to utility companies, knowing at the time that CEA had no earnings, no profits, and had no contracts with any utility company.  Warren also provided investors with a list of solar farms purportedly owned by CEA, many of which did not exist and others that were actually owned by other entities. 

To hide the fraud, Warren created phone audited financial statements and made regular Ponzi payments to select investors.  As the scheme was uncovered, Warren told investors he would repay the principal investments pending the imminent sale of the company to a foreign purchaser.  In fact, no sale could have ever materialized.

During the course of the scheme, Warren raised approximately $28 million from investors, misappropriated a significant portion of those funds, including using almost $7 million for the personal benefit of himself and family members, and caused investors to lose more than $15 million.

In June 2015, the SEC charged Heriberto C. Perez Valdes, a former Florida resident, Massachusetts-based DFRF Enterprises LLC, and Florida-based DFRF Enterprises, LLC, along with six other individual defendants, for their roles in a pyramid and Ponzi scheme that targeted investors in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities. The SEC alleged that investors were falsely told that the DFRF entities, purported gold mining companies, owned more than 50 gold mines in Africa and Brazil, and that an investment in these companies would be fully insured and guaranteed. The defendants allegedly raised more than $15 million from at least 1,400 investors between 2014 and 2015 by recruiting new members in pyramid scheme fashion to keep the fraud afloat. Commissions were allegedly paid to earlier investors in a Ponzi-like fashion to encourage their recruitment efforts.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Tang, who was then a Vice President of Clinical Research for Sangamo and a close friend and business associate of Govender, tipped Govender about confidential licensing agreement negotiations. According to the complaint, Govender then tipped defendant Steven Fishoff and members of Fishoff's insider-trading ring, and Fishoff tipped others who traded. The complaint alleges that Fishoff and the individuals that Fishoff and Govender tipped purchased Sangamo stock and options before the deal with Biogen was announced in January 2014, ultimately making a total of approximately $1.5 million in illegal profits. According to the complaint, Fishoff paid Govender approximately $222,000 for the information.

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In related actions filed in 2015 and 2017, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey charged Fishoff and four members of his group, Paul Petrello, Ronald Chernin, Steven Costantin and Joseph Spera, with illegal insider trading ahead of secondary public stock offerings. Fishoff and the others have pled guilty to the criminal charges. Other than Fishoff, each of them agreed to a partial settlement with the SEC, including for conduct related to trading in advance of the Sangamo-Biogen license agreement, with potential monetary sanctions to be determined at a later date. The SEC action against Fishoff in the District of New Jersey is continuing.

• Securities Industry Commentator
• Bill Singer