Secure that First Investor

Entreprenuer.com examines the concept that investors do not like to be alone. It's all about shared risk.

Calling it the "me, too" world of venture capital, where everyone appears to invest as part of a syndicate. Indeed, the typical first question out of a VC's mouth when talking to a startup about investing is, "Who's leading this?" The question points to a paradox about VCs in general. Everyone wants to tout that they're the best at sniffing out the next WhatsApp, but when it comes to putting money behind that startup, they want some other firm to have skin in the game first.

Nobody in the VC world likes to go it alone.

In the eyes of entrepreneurs, this makes VCs look like a scared bunch, but there is a rationale to this: It hedges risk. By syndicating an investment--even if the total amount invested is small enough for a firm to manage on its own--there is a bigger pool of funds available for future funding rounds or, alternatively, a reduction in losses should things go south. The more investors at the table, the more they can share the cost and time of conducting due diligence and hammering out term sheets.

Read the entire article at Secure That First Investor, and the Rest Will Come | Entrepreneur.com

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Oue clients at Sallah Astarita & Cox include  hedge funds, venture capitalists and individual investors. For  information regarding private investing, contact Mark Astarita at 212-509-6544 or email us.

SEC Charges Bitcoin Entrepreneur With Offering Unregistered Securities

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the co-owner of two Bitcoin-related websites for publicly offering shares in the two ventures without registering them.

An SEC investigation found that Erik T. Voorhees published prospectuses on the Internet and actively solicited investors to buy shares in SatoshiDICE and FeedZeBirds. But he failed to register the offerings with the SEC as required under the federal securities laws. Investors paid for their shares using Bitcoin, a virtual currency that can be used to purchase real-world goods and services and exchanged for fiat currencies on certain online exchanges. The profits ultimately earned by Voorhees through the unregistered offerings totaled more than $15,000.

Voorhees agreed to settle the SEC's charges by paying full disgorgement of the $15,843.98 in profits plus a $35,000 penalty for a total of more than $50,000.

"All issuers selling securities to the public must comply with the registration provisions of the securities laws, including issuers who seek to raise funds using Bitcoin," said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "We will continue to focus on enforcing our rules and regulations as they apply to digital currencies."

According to the SEC's order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, the first unregistered offering occurred in May 2012 as 2,600 bitcoins were raised through the sale of 30,000 shares in FeedZeBirds, which promises to pay bitcoins to Twitter users who forward its sponsored text messages. Then in two separate offerings from August 2012 to February 2013, SatoshiDICE sold 13 million shares and raised 50,600 bitcoins that were worth approximately $722,659 at the time. SatoshiDICE, which calls itself the biggest Bitcoin-betting game in the world and pays out casino-like winnings in bitcoins, ultimately returned these offering proceeds to investors in a buy-back transaction in July 2013. A significant rise in the exchange rate of U.S. dollars to bitcoins actually increased the amount paid back to investors to approximately $3.8 million for 45,500 bitcoins.

The SEC's order finds that Voorhees actively solicited investors to buy FeedZeBirds and SatoshiDICE shares on a website dedicated to Bitcoin known as the Bitcoin Forum. Voorhees also publicly promoted the unregistered offerings on other Bitcoin-related websites as well as Facebook. The first unregistered offering was explicitly referred to as the "FeedZeBirds IPO." Despite these general solicitations, no registration statement was filed for the FeedZeBirds or SatoshiDICE offerings, and no exemption from registration was applicable to these transactions.

The SEC's order finds that Voorhees violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933. Voorhees consented to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of the registration provisions without admitting or denying the SEC's findings. In addition to the monetary sanctions, Voorhees agreed that he will not participate in any issuance of any security in an unregistered transaction in exchange for any virtual currency including Bitcoin for a period of five years. The entry of the SEC's order disqualifies Voorhees from relying on Rule 506(b) and 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act, as defined in the bad actor disqualification provisions of Rule 506.


More Information:

Investor Alert: Bitcoin and Other Virtual Currency-Related Investments

SEC Charges Bitcoin Entrepreneur With Offering Unregistered Securities

Tech Company Insider Accused of Tipping Inside Information

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against a former accounting manager at Nvidia Corp. who tipped a friend with confidential company information that set in motion a chain of tipping and illegal trading among a network of hedge fund traders who reaped millions of dollars in illicit gains.

The SEC alleges that Chris Choi of San Jose, Calif., tipped his friend Hyung Lim with nonpublic information about Nvidia's financial performance in advance of the technology company's quarterly earnings announcements in 2009 and 2010. Lim relayed Choi's information to a fellow poker player Danny Kuo, who was a hedge fund manager at Whittier Trust Company. Kuo illegally traded on the inside information for his firm and passed it along to analysts at such other firms as Diamondback Capital Management, Level Global Investors LP, and Sigma Capital Management, which is an affiliate of S.A.C. Capital Advisors LP. The analysts relayed Choi's information to their portfolio managers who caused funds to conduct insider trading in Nvidia securities.

Choi, who agreed to settle the SEC's charges, is the 45th defendant charged by the SEC in its ongoing investigation into the activities of expert networks. The investigation has exposed widespread insider trading by investment professionals, hedge funds, and corporate insiders for illicit profits of approximately $430 million. The SEC previously charged Choi's tippees, including Lim as well as Kuo, Diamondback, and Level Global and Sigma Capital. The expert networks investigation arose out of the SEC's inquiry into Galleon Management and Raj Rajaratnam – a case in which the SEC has charged an additional 35 defendants whose insider trading generated illicit profits of more than $96 million.

"Insiders at public companies who are entrusted with confidential information are duty bound to protect it," said Sanjay Wadhwa, senior associate director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "Choi violated that sacred duty by regularly tipping his friend with nonpublic financial data that hedge fund traders exploited for millions of dollars in illegal profits."

According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Choi's illegal tips enabled hedge funds to reap approximately $16.5 million in illicit profits and avoided losses. Choi routinely provided Lim with nonpublic information about Nvidia's highly confidential calculations of its revenues, gross profit margins, and other financial metrics ahead of its quarterly earnings announcements.

The SEC's complaint charges Choi with violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933. Choi has agreed to pay a $30,000 penalty and be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Choi agreed to be permanently enjoined from future violations of these provisions of the federal securities laws. The settlement is subject to court approval.

For more information, see the SEC's press release, which also contains a link to the insider trading complaint.

Related articles

• SEC Expanding the Scope of Insider Trading 
• Insiders Who Tip Outsiders Liable for Insider Trading 

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Honolulu Woman Charged with Fraud Through Social Media

According to the SEC, its investigation found that Keiko Kawamura engaged in two separate fraudulent schemes to raise money from investors while casting herself as an investment and hedge fund expert when in fact she had virtually no prior trading experience. In one scheme, she sought investors for her self-described hedge fund and posted on Twitter some screenshots of brokerage account statements suggesting she was personally obtaining incredible investment returns. However, the account statements were not hers. And instead of investing the money she raised from investors, she spent it on her own living expenses and luxury trips to Miami and London. In a later scheme, Kawamura continued to boast phony experience to attract investors to her subscription service for investment advice. She falsely told subscribers that she had been in the investment banking industry for nearly a decade and had achieved 800 percent returns in her personal brokerage account.

"As alleged in our case, Kawamura used social media to ensnare investors and raise money to support her lifestyle," said Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office. "Investors should beware of fraudsters who use social media to hide behind anonymity and reach many investors with little to no cost or effort."

The SEC's order instituting administrative proceedings alleges that Kawamura willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, and Sections 206(1), 206(2), and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 20(4)-8. The administrative proceedings will determine any remedial action or financial penalties that are appropriate in the public interest against Kawamura.

SEC Announces Charges Against Honolulu Woman Defrauding Investors Through Social Media

SEC Investor Alert: Social Media and Investing - Avoiding Fraud

Related articles

• SEC Halts International Pyramid Scheme Being Promoted Through Facebook and Twitter - SEC.gov
• SEC Charges Hedge Fund Managers With Fraud
• SEC Charges RIA For False Statements to Investors and Investigators - Parallel Criminal Charges Filed.

Pyramid Scheme Targeting Asian and Latino Community Halted.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges and asset freezes against the operators of a worldwide pyramid scheme targeting Asian and Latino communities in the U.S. and abroad.

The SEC alleges that three entities collectively operating under the business names WCM and WCM777 are posing as multi-level marketing companies in the business of selling third-party cloud computing services, which can include website hosting, data storage, and software support. The entities are based in California and Hong Kong and controlled by “Phil” Ming Xu, who is a resident of Temple City, California. 

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, WCM and WCM777 have raised more than $65 million since March 2013 by falsely promising tens of thousands of investors that the return on investment in the cloud services venture would be 100 percent or more in 100 days. Investors were told they would receive “points” for making investments or enrolling other investors. The points would be convertible into equity in initial public offerings of high-tech companies their money would help launch. However, rather than building out cloud services or incubating high-tech companies, Xu and the WCM entities used investor funds to make Ponzi payments of purported investment returns to some investors. They also spent investor money to purchase golf courses and other U.S.-based properties among other unauthorized expenditures.

The court has granted the SEC’s request for an asset freeze and the appointment of a temporary receiver over the assets of WCM, WCM777, and several other entities named as relief defendants for the purpose of recovering money from the scheme in their possession.

“Xu and his entities claimed they were using investor funds to build a strong cloud services company that would then ignite other high-tech companies and ultimately make their investors very wealthy,” said Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. “In reality, they were operating a pyramid scheme that preyed on investors in particular ethnic communities, leaving them with nothing left to show for their investment.”

According to the SEC’s complaint, WCM and WCM777 sell their products exclusively to investors and have no other apparent sources of revenue. Their offerings and operations depend almost entirely on the recruitment of new investors and purchases by existing investors to provide the money for returns. On its website, WCM777 specifically addressed the question “Is WCM777 a Ponzi Game?” by writing, “In summary, we are not a Ponzi game company. We are creating a new business model.”

The SEC alleges that Xu and his entities made various false claims to investors about purported partnerships with more than 700 major companies such as Siemens, Denny’s, and Goldman Sachs – in some instances falsely representing that they had permission to use their logos. Meantime, besides buying two golf courses with investor money, Xu and his entities also purchased a warehouse, vacant land, and several single family homes They also used investor funds to play the stock market and make other related investments through intermediary companies, such as an oil and gas offering. They also sent investor money to a rough diamond jewel merchant in Hong Kong and another unrelated company affiliated with Xu.

SEC’s complaint alleges that WCM, WCM777, and Xu violated Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5. The complaint further alleges that Xu violated Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act. In addition to the asset freezes and appointment of a temporary receiver, the Honorable Christina A. Snyder also granted the SEC’s request for an order prohibiting the destruction of documents and requiring the defendants to provide accountings. A court hearing has been scheduled for April 10, 2014.

For more information about the dangers of potential investment scams involving pyramid schemes posing as multi-level marketing programs, see the SEC’s investor alert, which also is available in Chinese.

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If you have been damaged by this, or any other investment scheme, contact Sallah Astarita & Cox for a free consultation.