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The Financial Professionals Coalition, Ltd. is a diverse resource for over 1.2 million registered representatives, associated persons, traders, bankers, back-office staff, and owners of broker-dealers and registered investment advisors. The Coalition provides courtesy consultations with industry experts. Membership is free. 

Defendant extradited from the United Kingdom (DOJ Release)
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/nigerian-man-sentenced-online-fraud-schemes
In the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Happy Chukwuma, 30, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy; and he was sentenced to eight months in prison (time served). As alleged in part in the DOJ Release:

Between November 2015 and January 2019, Chukwuma and his co-conspirators participated in a variety of online fraud schemes, including “phishing” and romance scams. They exchanged victims’ personally identifiable information, including identification and financial documents, and engaged in financial transactions with that information. Several of the victims whose information was compromised were from Massachusetts.  

SEC Halts $155 Million Fraudulent Oil and Gas Offering Scheme (SEC Release)
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2023/lr25712.htm
In the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the SEC filed a Complaint https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2023/comp25712.pdf
charging Roy W. Hill, Eric N. Shelly, Clean Energy Technology Association, Inc. ("CETA"), and Freedom Impact Consulting, LLC ("FIC") with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Court issued Orders temporarily restraining the defendants' ongoing offerings, temporarily freezing the defendants' assets, appointing a receiver, and granting other emergency relief. As alleged in part in the SEC Release:

[H]ill and Shelly offered investments in funds sponsored by FIC. The Defendants represented that these funds will use investor money to purchase devices that CETA refers to as carbon capture units (CCUs). CETA represented that it builds CCUs and leases them to oil and gas producers to purportedly enhance the recovery and marketability of oil and gas. The complaint also alleges that Defendants represented that FIC and CETA will pay investors returns representing a share of revenues earned from operating the CCUs. The SEC alleges that Hill and Shelly lured investors with false claims that the CCUs are patented, that one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world is a customer, and that the funds sponsored by FIC consistently have generated a ten percent quarterly return.

According to the complaint, however, the investment is a sham, because CETA has not received material revenues from CCU operations, and the quarterly distributions made to investors are sourced from other investors' capital. The complaint alleges that, to conceal and perpetuate the scheme, Shelly and FIC have provided investors with false financial statements that reflect economic activity and investment returns that do not exist. 

SEC Denies Whistleblower Award to Claimant 
Order Determining Whistleblower Award Claim ('34 Act Release No. 34-97450; Whistleblower Award Proc. File No. 2023-57)
https://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2023/34-97450.pdf
The Claims Review Staff ("CRS") issued a Preliminary Determination recommending the denial of a Whistleblower Award to Claimant. The Commission ordered that CRS's recommendations be approved. The Order asserts in part that [Ed: footnotes omitted]:

Based on this factual record, Claimant’s information submission was not made voluntarily as required by Exchange Act Section 21F and Rules 21F-3 and 21F-4(a)(1).8 For a claimant’s submission to be made voluntarily, it must be  provided to the Commission “before a request, inquiry, or demand that relates to the subject matter of your submission is directed to you or anyone representing you (such as an attorney)” by the Commission.

Here, Claimant only submitted information to the Commission Staff requested to schedule testimony with the Claimant and after Staff subpoenaed Claimant to provide documents and testimony. Claimant submitted his/her TCR on REDACTED —four years after REDACTED —which was also the same date that Claimant testified before the Commission. Claimant’s TCR related to the same subject matter as the subpoena that Staff issued Claimant

SEC Denies Whistleblower Award to Claimant 
Order Determining Whistleblower Award Claim ('34 Act Release No. 34-97449; Whistleblower Award Proc. File No. 2023-56)
https://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2023/34-97449.pdf
The Claims Review Staff ("CRS") issued a Preliminary Determination recommending the denial of a Whistleblower Award to Claimant. The Commission ordered that CRS's recommendations be approved. The Order asserts in part that [Ed: footnotes omitted]:

Claimant asserts that he/she was unaware that the Commission’s whistleblower program existed and that no one from the government notified him/her about it. Claimant also states that he/she worked with Agency 2 as a confidential informant without representation by counsel for  ***  REDACTED However, none of these purported reasons excuse Claimant’s failure to file a timely TCR. As we have previously stated, a lack of awareness of the Commission’s whistleblower program does not rise to the level of an extraordinary circumstance.