SEC Charges E-Commerce Startup and CEO With Defrauding Investors

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a San Francisco-based e-commerce startup and its chief executive officer with misleading investors about purported contracts with well-known consumer brands.

According to the SEC's complaint, from 2018 to 2020, Andrew J. Chapin, the founder and CEO of Benja Inc., told investors that Benja was a successful online advertising platform that generated millions of dollars in revenue from popular consumer clothing brands and retailers. In reality, as the complaint alleges, Benja never did business with the companies. The complaint further alleges that in order to secure investments, Chapin enlisted one or more associates to help induce investments from venture capital investors by impersonating representatives of Benja's purported customers and the supposed founder of a venture capital fund who falsely claimed to have made a large investment in Benja. According to the complaint, Chapin also provided an investor with forged contracts and doctored bank statements. read more »

U.S. states prepping second antitrust lawsuit against Google for next month

REUTERS

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google as early as next month, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The lawsuit is separate from a widely anticipated Texas antitrust action that could also come before the end of the year.

The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in October, and this group of states has said it planned to combine its case with the government’s. The states are Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. read more »