SEC

Sam Wyly, an ex-Texas billionaire who has declared bankruptcy, will pay $198.1 million to settle federal securities regulator claims accusing him of securities fraud to hide trades in companies that were under his control through the use of offshore trusts. A federal bankruptcy judge in Dallas and the SEC commissioners must still approve the settlement.  According to the agreement, Wyly and his family must take action so that offshore trusts in the Isle of Man will issue payments to satisfy the judgment that the SEC obtained last year against him and his now-deceased brother Charles Wyly.  In the meanwhile, the regulator will make sure that the 81-year-old gets a credit against his almost $181M million of federal income tax liabilities.    The SEC, in its securities fraud lawsuit that it brought in 2010, accused the brothers of making $553 million in undisclosed profits when it traded in companies under their control by using the offshores trusts. Both said they did nothing wrong. [...]

The SEC charged an ex-microcap CEO and a boiler room operator with pressuring senior citizens and other investors to purchase penny stocks in a $20 million fraud. Craig V. Sizer is the former CEO of Sanomedics, which supposedly sold non-contact infrared thermometers, and chairman of software applications company Fun Cool Free, according to the SEC. The Commission alleges that Sizer hired Miguel "Michael" Mesa and gave him a list of pitch points for use by boiler room agents hired by Mesa to assist in attracting and defraud investors in both companies. The statement claims that investors were promised lucrative profits and were falsely told that their cash would be used for research and development and that there would be no sales commissions. “We allege that Sizer and Mesa fraudulently touted Sanomedics and Fun Cool Free stocks as profitable investments, while in fact only Sizer and Mesa and the sales agents were profiting at the expense of [...]