Legal
John Carris Shutters in Wake of FINRA Fraud Allegations
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A New York City based broker-dealer active in equity private placements with emerging growth companies is shutting down nine months after FINRA sued it for fraud.
News
SEC Sues American Executives in Failed Chinese Reverse Merger Company for Fraud
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Chinese and American executives in AgFeed Industries (FEEDQ), a now bankrupt Chinese reverse merger company, have been charged with misleading shareholders for years by overstating revenue and falsely reporting other material accounting information in public filings. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the executives on March 11, claiming internal company whistleblowers came to AgFeed’s board, comprised mainly of American executives, warning of the accounting fraud but its CFO and chairman of the audit committee took months to report it because they were in the middle of raising additional capital. The China-based company animal feed and hog producer was sponsored by the controversial shell merger broker Benjamin Wey. The SEC claims AgFeed reported fictitious revenues from its China operations from 2008 through June 30, 2011. The accounting fraud caused AgFeed’s publicly-reported revenues to be inflated by approximately $239 million over this period and overstated revenue ranging from approximately 71% to 103% on an annual basis.
News
NanoViricides Takes Short Seller Hit
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NanoViricides (NNVC), a biotech company that has raised $42 million through PIPE and registered equity private placements in the last 12 months, including a $20 million registered direct offering managed by Midtown Partners and Chardan Capital Markets in late January, experienced a hit of up to 28% in its stock on Tuesday, Feb. 11, after an anonymous short seller published a research note questioning how company assets are being spent by executives. Growth Capital Investor reported in October on many of the issues raised in the Seeking Alpha article, which included discrepancies in their public filings. The company briefly halted the small cap stock mid-day and held a conference call on a small internet radio station called Yorba Media calling the article “baseless and inaccurate.”
NanoViricides, headed up by Eugene Seymour and Anil Diwan, claims to be creating special purpose nano-materials for viral therapy. The company is developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal influenza, HIV, oral and genital herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, hepatitis C, rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.
News
More than Paypal: VCs Eye Mobile Payments Startups
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A mobile payments start-up company is beginning their Series A round of financing this month trying to attract up to $15 million. The almost two-year-old Ribbon received $1.75 million in angel investments led by Draper Associates last year. The six-person company founded by Hany Rashwan is focused on making mobile payments more accessible for merchants and easier for consumers. It’s competing with the likes of Square and Google Wallet using technology and its partnerships with credit card processors to make the payment steps quicker and simpler on a mobile device. Ribbon is now expanding to consumer-to-consumer payments.
