SEC charged Paris-based telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to foreign government officials to illicitly win business in Latin America and Asia.

Source- http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-258.htm

The SEC alleges that Alcatel’s subsidiaries used consultants who performed little or no legitimate work to funnel more than $8 million in bribes to government officials in order to obtain or retain lucrative telecommunications contracts and other contracts. Alcatel agreed to pay more than $45 million to settle the SEC’s charges, and pay an additional $92 million to settle criminal charges announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Alcatel and its subsidiaries failed to detect or investigate numerous red flags suggesting their employees were directing sham consultants to provide gifts and payments to foreign government officials to illegally win business,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Alcatel’s bribery scheme was the product of a lax corporate control environment at the company.”

Glenn S. Gordon, Associate Director for Enforcement in the SEC’s Miami Regional Office, added, “The serious sanctions Alcatel has agreed to, including paying back all net profits made on the contracts Alcatel illegally obtained, should serve as a reminder that we are committed to enforcing the FCPA and a level playing field for companies seeking to obtain or retain business in other countries.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida, Alcatel’s bribes went to government officials in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia, and Taiwan between December 2001 and June 2006. An Alcatel subsidiary provided at least $14.5 million to consulting firms through sham consulting agreements for use in the bribery scheme in Costa Rica. Various high-level government officials in Costa Rica received at least $7 million of the $14.5 million to ensure Alcatel obtained or retained three contracts to provide telephone services in Costa Rica.

The SEC alleges that the same Alcatel subsidiary bribed officials in the government of Honduras to obtain or retain five telecommunications contracts. Another Alcatel subsidiary made bribery payments to Malaysian government officials in order to procure a telecommunications contract. An Alcatel subsidiary also made illegal payments to various officials in the government of Taiwan to win a contract to supply railway axle counters to the Taiwan Railway Administration.

According to the SEC’s complaint, all of the bribery payments were undocumented or improperly recorded as consulting fees in the books of Alcatel’s subsidiaries and then consolidated into Alcatel’s financial statements. The leaders of several Alcatel subsidiaries and geographical regions, including some who reported directly to Alcatel’s executive committee, either knew or were severely reckless in not knowing about the misconduct.

The SEC’s complaint charges that Alcatel violated Section 30A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making illicit payments to foreign government officials, through its subsidiaries and agents, in order to obtain or retain business. Alcatel violated Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act by failing to have adequate internal controls to detect and prevent the payments. Alcatel violated Section 13(b)(2)(A) of the Exchange Act by improperly recording the payments in its books and records. Alcatel violated Section 13(b)(5) of the Exchange Act when its subsidiaries knowingly failed to implement a system of internal controls and knowingly falsified their books and records to camouflage bribes as consulting payments. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Alcatel has consented to a court order permanently enjoining it from future violations of these statutory provisions; ordering the company to pay $45.372 million in disgorgement of wrongfully obtained profits, and ordering it to comply with certain undertakings including an independent monitor for a three-year term. The settlement is subject to court approval.

The SEC’s case was investigated by Ernesto Palacios and Thierry Olivier Desmet of the Division of Enforcement’s FCPA Unit and by Teresa J. Verges and Fernando Torres – all of the Miami Regional Office.

The SEC acknowledges and appreciates assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice, Fraud Section; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Office of the Attorney General in Costa Rica, the Fiscalía de Delitos Económicos, Corrupción y Tributarios in Costa Rica; and the Service Central de Prévention de la Corruption in France.


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Randy M. Cho Was Charged With Allegedly Swindled Nearly $8 Million from More Than 50 Victims in Investment Fraud Scheme

Source- http://chicago.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/cg122710.htm

CHICAGO—A former Chicago man was charged with allegedly engaging in an investment fraud scheme, swindling nearly $8 million from more than 50 victims who were led to believe they were buying shares of stock in well-known companies. The defendant, Randy M. Cho, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return in a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court. Cho allegedly misused a significant portion of the funds he raised from investors for his own personal benefit, while using other funds he fraudulently obtained from new investors to make Ponzi-type payments to previous investors. Cho, 39, of Newton, Mass., and formerly of Chicago, will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Alvin Patton, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago, announced today.

According to the charges, Cho held himself out as a self-employed securities trader, who, from approximately 2001 to 2009, lived and worked at various times in Chicago, Seattle, Boston and Newton, Mass. Cho purportedly offered and sold more than $9,642,507 of shares of stock in wellknown companies to more than 50 U.S. and foreign investors, including some in the Chicago area. Cho claimed to have access to sell stock in these companies, which he offered as part of a “friends and family” investment pool, often in anticipation of purported initial public offerings. Cho allegedly misrepresented that he had a special relationship with Goldman Sachs and was able to purchase discounted shares, and further misrepresented the timing or existence of public offerings, the potential profitability and safety of investments, and the use of the funds raised from investors.

At various times during the alleged scheme, Cho falsely told investors that he could purchase specially-discounted shares of companies, including AOL/Time warner, Inc., Google, Inc., Rosetta Stone, Inc., and Facebook, Inc., prior to their initial public offerings, the charges allege. For example, Cho induced one victim to invest approximately $20,000 by falsely representing that he had Google stock available to sell for $1 per share, when, in fact, Cho knew that shares of Google were publicly trading at $425 per share or more. Cho also knew that he had no Google shares at a lower price and had no intent to purchase any Google stock on the victim’s behalf, the charges add.

Similarly, Cho allegedly falsely lulled another investor into believing that the victim had made a $1 million profit by investing in shares of Google stock when no such investment or profit existed. As part of the scheme, Cho used more than $1.5 million in new investor funds to make Ponzi-type payments to previous investors, and Cho caused investors to lose approximately $7,960,707, according to the charges.

The tax count alleges that Cho filed a false federal income tax return for 2005, reporting total income of $118,475, when he knew he had received income totaling approximately $1,1,72,862.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Felicia Manno Alesia. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission assisted in the investigation.

Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and restitution is mandatory. The Court may also impose a fine totaling twice the loss to any victim or twice the gain to the defendant, whichever is greater. Filing a false tax return carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In addition, a defendant convicted of tax offenses faces mandatory costs of prosecution and remains liable for any taxes owed, as well as a civil fraud penalty up to 75 percent of any underpayment plus interest. If convicted, however, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The investigation falls under the umbrella of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.


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SEC Charges Benjamin P. Chui, Triffany Mok and Charles E. Hall Jr. with defrauding investors in a $100 million hedge fund that invested in subprime automobile loans.

Source- http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-254.htm

Washington, D.C., Dec. 21, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two San Francisco-based investment adviser firms along with their former CEO, former general counsel, and former portfolio manager with defrauding investors in a $100 million hedge fund that invested in subprime automobile loans.

The SEC found that former CEO Benjamin P. Chui and former portfolio manager Triffany Mok — who managed the American Pegasus Auto Loan Fund — together with former general counsel Charles E. Hall, Jr., engaged in improper self-dealing, misused client assets, and failed to disclose conflicts of interest.

The firms — American Pegasus LDG and American Pegasus Investment Management —and Chui, Hall, and Mok settled the SEC’s charges by agreeing to sanctions including bars from the industry and more than $1 million in penalties and repayments to the fund.

“Fund advisers have a duty to disclose conflicts of interest and act in the best interests of clients whose assets they are entrusted to manage,” said Marc Fagel, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Instead, Chui, Hall, and Mok created a tangled financial web, using investor funds for their personal benefit and then attempting to paper over the misconduct by inflating the value of fund assets.”

The SEC’s order instituting administrative proceedings finds that unbeknownst to investors, in mid-2007, Chui used more than $18 million in loans and advances from the Auto Loan Fund to buy the fund’s sole supplier of auto loans for himself, Hall, and Mok. This created a pervasive conflict of interest as Chui, Hall, and Mok had a duty to maximize the fund’s performance while at the same time had an interest in generating profits for the loan supplier they secretly owned.

The SEC also found that Chui used millions in cash borrowed from the Auto Loan Fund to prop up other hedge funds he managed. By late 2008, roughly 40 percent of the Auto Loan Fund’s assets consisted of “loans” to the fund managers’ related businesses — with fund investors being charged fees based on these undisclosed related-party payments.

According to the SEC’s order, Chui, Hall, and Mok then essentially wiped much of this debt to the fund off the books by selling assets to the fund at a 300 percent mark-up. Chui, with help from Hall and Mok, purchased an auto loan portfolio for $12 million in February 2009 — then sold it to the Auto Loan Fund the same day for more than $38 million. The fraudulently inflated sale was used to erase money owed to the fund for the various related-party transactions.

The Commission’s order finds violations of multiple antifraud statutes by Chui, Hall, Mok, and their two adviser firms. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, the respondents agreed to the following settlement terms. Chui, who lives in San Carlos, Calif., agreed to pay a $175,000 penalty and be barred from associating with an investment adviser for five years. Hall, who lives in Carlisle, Penn., agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and be barred from associating with an investment adviser for three years and from appearing or practicing before the Commission as an attorney for three years. Mok, who lives in Fremont, Calif., agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty and be suspended from associating with an investment adviser for one year. The two adviser firms must disgorge $850,000 in management fees deemed improper by the SEC.


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SEC charged a former Executive Vice President of children's clothing marketer Carter's Inc. Joseph M. Elles's for engaging in financial fraud and insider trading.

Source- http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-252.htm

Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former Executive Vice President of children's clothing marketer Carter's Inc. for engaging in financial fraud and insider trading. The SEC alleges that Joseph M. Elles's misconduct caused an understatement of Carter's expenses and a material overstatement of its net income in several financial reporting periods.

The SEC also announced that it has entered a non-prosecution agreement with Carter's under which the Atlanta-based company will not be charged with any violations of the federal securities laws relating to Elles's unlawful conduct. The non-prosecution agreement reflects the relatively isolated nature of the unlawful conduct, Carter's prompt and complete self-reporting of the misconduct to the SEC, its exemplary and extensive cooperation in the investigation, including undertaking a thorough and comprehensive internal investigation, and Carter's extensive and substantial remedial actions. This marks the first non-prosecution agreement entered by the SEC since the announcement of the SEC's new cooperation initiative earlier this year.

"Elles's trickery in secretly awarding excessive discounts deceived and damaged Carter's investors," said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "While that was the wrong thing to do, Carter's did the right thing by promptly self-reporting the misconduct, taking thorough remedial action, and extensively cooperating with our investigation, for which it received the benefits of a non-prosecution agreement. In such circumstances, incentivizing appropriate corporate response to misconduct through the use of non-prosecution agreements is in the best interest of companies, shareholders and the SEC alike."

William P. Hicks, Associate Director of Enforcement in the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office, added, "Elles deceived accounting personnel at Carter's and caused financial misstatements to investors. After his misconduct inflated the company's earnings, Elles exercised options for the purchase of Carter's common stock and sold the resulting shares for his personal gain."

According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Elles conducted his scheme from 2004 to 2009 while serving as Carter's Executive Vice President of Sales. The SEC alleges that Elles fraudulently manipulated the dollar amount of discounts that Carter's granted to its largest wholesale customer — a large national department store — in order to induce that customer to purchase greater quantities of Carter's clothing for resale. Elles then concealed his misconduct by persuading the customer to defer subtracting the discounts from payments until later financial reporting periods. He created and signed false documents that misrepresented to Carter's accounting personnel the timing and amount of those discounts.

The SEC further alleges that Elles realized sizeable gains from insider trading in shares of Carter's common stock during the fraud. Between May 2005 and March 2009, Elles realized a profit before tax of approximately $4,739,862 from the exercises of options granted to him by Carter's and sales of the resulting shares. Each of these stock sales occurred prior to the company's initial disclosure relating to the fraud on Oct. 27, 2009, immediately after which the company's common stock share price dropped 23.8 percent.

After discovering Elles's actions and conducting its own internal investigation, Carter's was required to issue restated financial results for the affected periods.

Under the terms of the non-prosecution agreement, Carter's agreed to cooperate fully and truthfully in any further investigation conducted by the SEC staff as well as in the enforcement action filed against Elles.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Elles violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Sections 10(b) and 13(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 13b2-1, and aided and abetted violations of Sections 13(a) and 13(b)(2)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11 and 13a-13. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, financial penalties, and an officer and director bar against Elles.

The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this matter. The SEC's investigation is continuing.


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SEC charged a self-described power company Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) with fraudulently raising funds

Source- http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-249.htm

Washington D.C., Dec. 16, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a self-described power company in Idaho with fraudulently raising funds for a $10 billion nuclear power project. The SEC is seeking an emergency court order to freeze the assets of the company and two executives.

The SEC alleges that Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) has raised millions of dollars from investors in Idaho and throughout the U.S. and Asia while fraudulently manipulating its stock price through misleading public statements that conceal the secret profits reaped by its CEO Donald L. Gillispie and Senior Vice President Jennifer Ransom. Gillispie has touted the company as a tremendous investment opportunity that could rival Exxon Mobil in profitability, despite the fact that AEHI has essentially no revenue and minimal operations.

The SEC suspended trading in AEHI stock earlier this week.

“In light of AEHI’s ongoing efforts to raise funding while promoting itself through a daily deluge of press releases, we needed to take immediate action to get to the bottom of the company’s misleading statements,” said Marc Fagel, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Documents we have obtained to date indicate a scheme to personally enrich the CEO at the expense of investors.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed today in federal district court in Boise, AEHI’s fundraising was facilitated by a scheme to drive up the company’s stock price, both through frequent press releases (at least 87 in 2010 alone) and efforts of paid stock promoters to manipulate the stock price. The SEC alleges that the company has made multiple misrepresentations, including claims that its executives had such confidence in AEHI that they had not sold a single share of company stock. Records obtained by the SEC show that Gillispie and Ransom have instead secretly unloaded extensive stock holdings and funneled the money back to Gillispie.

The SEC’s complaint also alleges that AEHI reported to the SEC and investors that Gillispie’s compensation was $133,000. However, Gillispie has actually reaped approximately six times that amount in 2010.

The SEC’s complaint charges AEHI, Gillispie, and Ransom with violations of the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and names as relief defendants two companies controlled by Gillispie and Ransom (Executive Energy Consulting LLC and Bosco Financial LLC). In a motion filed simultaneously with the enforcement action, the SEC seeks emergency relief for investors including an asset freeze and a temporary restraining order enjoining the defendants from further violations of the securities laws.

The SEC’s case was investigated by Kristin Waldron, David Berman, Heather Marlow, and Tracy Davis of the San Francisco Regional Office. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the Idaho Department of Finance and FINRA in this matter. The SEC’s investigation is continuing.


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SEC Charged Jonathan Star Bristol, attorney for former financial advisor Kenneth Ira Starr, with aiding and abetting Starr's multi-million dollar fraud by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits when Starr stole money from advisory clients.

Source- http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-248.htm

Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Jonathan Star Bristol, attorney for former financial advisor Kenneth Ira Starr, with aiding and abetting Starr's multi-million dollar fraud by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits when Starr stole money from advisory clients.

The SEC alleges that more than $25 million belonging to Starr's clients flowed through Bristol's attorney trust accounts. Without his clients' authorization, Starr would transfer their funds into the attorney trust accounts, and then Bristol would transfer the stolen funds to Starr and his two companies for personal use.

The SEC alleges that Bristol never disclosed the existence of the attorney trust accounts to the prominent international law firm where he worked at the time. Monthly account statements clearly listing the names of Starr's clients as the source of the incoming transfers were sent directly to Bristol's home address instead of the law firm. Meanwhile, Bristol touted his relationship with Starr to his colleagues and others, claiming that Starr managed $70 billion in assets. In fact, Starr managed only a fraction of that amount.

"Bristol had a legal and professional responsibility not to assist Ken Starr in conduct that he knew was unlawful," said George S. Canellos, Director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "Bristol crossed the line from lawyer to conspirator when he failed to safeguard funds entrusted to him, helped Starr steal client money, and lied to the victims to perpetuate the scheme."

The SEC previously charged Starr, Starr Investment Advisors LLC, and Starr & Company LLC with violating securities laws pertaining to custody of clients' assets and misusing client funds to buy a multi-million dollar luxury condominium on Manhattan's Upper East Side among other things.

The SEC's amended complaint, filed today in federal court in Manhattan, adds Bristol as a defendant, alleging that beginning around November 2008 and continuing until Starr's arrest in May 2010, Bristol repeatedly allowed Starr to use his attorney trust accounts to funnel money stolen from Starr clients. Notwithstanding his personal role in the scheme, Bristol represented Starr and his companies throughout the SEC's investigation and in an investment advisory examination by SEC staff.

According to the SEC's amended complaint, Bristol was confronted by one of Starr's victims about an unauthorized $1 million transfer from the victim's account. Bristol lied to the victim that the funds were being bundled with other clients' funds for an investment with UBS Financial Services. In fact, Bristol had already used the misappropriated funds to pay a multi-million dollar legal settlement with one of Starr's former clients. Bristol subsequently sought to represent that same victim after the victim was contacted by SEC staff in its investigation. In addition to the fact that such representations violated the ethical obligations of lawyers, Bristol's clear intent was to obstruct and undermine the SEC's investigation in order to conceal the wrongdoing.

The SEC's amended complaint charges Bristol with aiding and abetting the Starr Parties' violations of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with pre-judgment interest and financial penalties. The SEC also will seek an order barring Bristol from practicing before the Commission pursuant to Rule 102(e) of the Commission's Rules of Practice.

Sanjay Wadhwa, Maureen F. Lewis, Timothy Casey and Sandeep Satwalekar, all members of the SEC's Market Abuse Unit in New York, and George O'Kane of the New York Regional Office conducted the agency's investigation, which is continuing. The SEC's litigation effort will be led by Todd Brody. The SEC thanks the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the New York County District Attorney's Office, and the New York Office of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division for their assistance in this matter.


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