CFTC Charges 5 Canadians, 1 American, and 4 Companies in $165 Million Global Binary Options Fraud Scheme

SEC

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the filing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas charging six individuals and four companies with operating a fraudulent binary options trading scheme that received over $165 million in connection with illegal, off-exchange binary option transactions on currency pairs, oil, and other commodities. read more »

SEC complaint filed over mine that could threaten rare plant

ABC NEWS

Conservationists have filed a complaint with the Securities Exchange Commission accusing an Australian mining company of misleading investors about how soon it might start building a Nevada lithium mine at the center of a fight over a rare desert wildflower.

Ioneer Ltd. told investors in July its goal was to have all the necessary regulatory approvals in place by next summer for the project they estimate could be worth more than $1 billion.

But a government official told The Associated Press that U.S. land managers don’t anticipate making a formal decision on the fate of the environmentally sensitive project until January 2022. read more »

United States Reaches Settlement to Recover more than $60 Million Involving Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund

DOJ

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement of its civil forfeiture cases against assets acquired by Riza Aziz utilizing funds allegedly embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund, and laundered through financial institutions in several jurisdictions, including the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg.

These assets are estimated to be worth more than $60 million.  With the conclusion of this settlement, together with the prior disposition of other related forfeiture cases, the United States will have recovered or assisted in the recovery of nearly $1.1 billion in assets associated with the 1MDB international money laundering and bribery scheme.  This represents the largest recovery to date under the department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative and the largest civil forfeiture ever concluded by the Justice Department. read more »