WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Dec. 6 that Equidate Inc. has agreed to settle allegations of violating federal securities laws.
According to the SEC, Equidate failed to register security-based swaps offered and sold online to shareholders in pre-IPO companies. The company did not admit or deny the findings, but agreed to an $80,000 settlement. It stopped the sale of security-based swaps in December 2015 when the SEC first began the case.
“Market participants are free to capitalize on the growth of private technology companies in the Silicon Valley or elsewhere but laws must be followed to ensure security-based swaps are registered and sold through platforms where investors have full disclosure and protections,” said Jina Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office.
Ruth Hawley first looked into the matter for the SEC, supervised by Jeremy Pendrey of the San Francisco office with assistance from Carlos Vasquez and R. Scott Walker. Also assisting with the case were Carol McGee and Andrew Bernstein of the division of trading and markets and Amy Starr and Andrew Schoeffler of the division of corporation finance.