SEC Defense: Mountain View, California

Attorney John W. Sellers
SEC Defense Team Lead
Former DOJ Trial Attorney

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the foremost U.S. agency responsible for implementing and enforcing federal securities laws. The SEC’s range of duties is diverse and includes both regulatory and enforcement responsibilities. The SEC oversees federal securities legislation and is mandated to investigate allegations against companies, securities professionals, executives, and other insiders in this regard. The SEC also has the option to prosecute and impose sanctions. These sanctions vary in nature, ranging from civil and criminal to administrative or professional. In general, these sanctions can take on serious proportions. For instance, securities violations can result in monetary fines of billions of dollars, grave professional sanctions, and even prison sentences.

The SEC has a headquarters and a handful of regional offices scattered around the U.S. Each of these regional offices has limited territorial jurisdiction. Hence, each regional office is mandated to investigate and prosecute companies, executives, professionals, and other insiders with criminating fraud evidence against them. The SEC’s regional offices tend to be located in cities that are extremely distinguished as regards securities and complex financial assets. One such city of financial relevance is Mountain View, California. If you or your firm is contacted by the SEC regional office with jurisdiction over Mountain View, you should immediately contact our SEC fraud defense lawyers at Oberheiden P.C. Immediate legal counseling is remarkably pertinent and our legal team can offer a high amount of legal expertise in this department. As a result, we can offer you a tailor-made fraud defense strategy to help you minimize or eliminate criminal or civil liability. Whether you are only being monitored by the SEC or you are put under actual investigation, seeking legal help should be your first course of action.

SEC Fraud Defense in Mountain View

Even though the SEC’s headquarters are found at the heart of Washington D.C., there are also 11 regional offices associated with the SEC. Each of these offices has an Enforcement Division with a particular territorial scope and jurisdiction. Mountain View is situated in the south-eastern and south-western part of the San Francisco Peninsula. Thus, Mountain View falls within the scope of the SEC San Francisco Regional Office. This territorial scope further includes Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and Northern California. All securities companies and professionals in these areas are subjected to the SEC Francisco Regional Office’s critical eye for fraud allegations. The office’s official address is 44 Montgomery Street.

The Federal Securities Laws Supervised by the SEC

The SEC is not mandated to oversee each U.S. law as regards securities, fraud, and financial assets. Nevertheless, the SEC takes several relevant federal laws under its wing. Specifically, the SEC’s Enforcement Division is mandated to investigate and prosecute financial misconduct based on the following legal instruments:

Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Securities Act of 1933
Dodd-Frank Act
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
Securities Exchange Act of 1934

These examples all constitute federal laws that are wide and far-reaching in scope. The SEC uses these as a foundation to pursue its agenda of investigating and prosecuting financial misconduct and fraudulent trading behavior. The ultimate goal predefined goal according to the SEC is to safeguard unassuming investors by protecting their funds against fraudulent behavior of securities professionals.

Misconduct Targeted by the SEC

Securities professionals can commit fraud in numerous ways, but the SEC prioritizes certain types of financial misconduct. These types are considered to be the most detrimental to a fair trading market and thus, the SEC actively investigates and prosecutes such securities violations. When there is enough incriminating evidence against accused companies or executives, this can result in criminal or civil liability. Accordingly, liability can come together with serious sanctions such as trading bans or enormous monetary fines. Pertinent examples of misconduct prioritized by the SEC include:

Trading during Mergers

In some circumstances, a blackout period can be present for certain companies. Such a blackout period is often put in place when there is currently a corporate merger in the works. Then, both companies may have to abide by a trading ban. Therefore, none of the insiders, executives, or other securities professionals associated with either company may complete trades as long as the blackout period is in force. If they do not comply with such a trading ban, this can alert the SEC and a formal investigation may ensue.

Inside Trading

Inside trading is a serious financial offense and can inflict both criminal and civil liability. That is because inside trading is a type of misconduct that undermines the fundament of the financial market, that being fair competition. Fair competition namely cannot be guaranteed when there are certain securities professionals that have a clear information advantage. Inside trading occurs when a professional has specific financial information about particular firms or trading deals. As a result, this professional has an advantage that they can use for their own benefit. Insider trading is prosecuted by the SEC from two perspectives. Those perspectives include the perspective of the party providing inside information and the perspective of the investor benefiting from inside information after being tipped off.

Embezzlement

When the SEC prosecutes instances of embezzlement, it fundamentally targets situations in which securities professionals steal from their clients. They receive funds from their clients to do certain investments but instead, they use it to benefit their own bank accounts. This is a very serious type of fraud and the SEC constantly is on the lookout for allegations in this regard. Not only the SEC but other state and federal enforcement agencies prioritize prosecuting embezzlement in order to maximally strive for the common goal of protecting the funds of investors throughout the U.S.

Misrepresentation of Material Information

Securities professionals are legally obliged to provide client-investors with all the information relevant to certain types of investments. When the information provided is not entirely correct, this does not benefit the investor at hand and thus, the SEC takes these allegations very seriously. A variation on misrepresentation of material information is the omission of material information. This entails that a securities professional chooses not to provide a certain investor with relevant information. With both misrepresentation and omission, investors are not able to make well-informed decisions and are misled. Both constitute negligent behavior on the account of the professional and thus, the professional risks liability and severe sanctions imposed by the SEC.

FAQs about SEC Fraud Defense in Mountain View

What Type of Sanctions can Securities Violations Lead to?

Fraud and other financial misconduct are frowned upon, not only by the SEC but also by other agencies such as the DOJ and the FBI. A logical consequence of this is that violations of federal securities laws tend to not be punished lightly. Even more so, the sanctions than can be imposed are often quite severe. For instance, violations can lead to billion-dollar fines, professional trading bans, and prison sentences to just name a few examples.

Why Is Legal Representation Necessary in the Case of an SEC Investigation?

The SEC does not take securities violations lightly and thus, the sanctions associated with fraud and other financial misconduct reflect the SEC’s view in this department. So, that is why legal representation should be on the top of your agenda if you are being investigated by the SEC. Additionally, the SEC is known to be quite procedural and this can be extremely overwhelming. Hence, to prevent you from making any mistakes, it is highly recommended that you seek assistance from experienced fraud defense attorneys.

Why Should I Opt for the Attorneys at Oberheiden P.C.?

SEC fraud defense is of utmost importance and therefore, a great legal team is essential to have in your corner. At Oberheiden P.C., you will find that our lawyers are equipped with the necessary legal tools and a lot of experience to contribute to your defense. Our lawyers further have an outstanding reputation, which is demonstrated by the success rates amongst our clients as regards minimizing criminal and civil liability. We also make it a point to constantly strive for excellence and we continuously put this into practice to provide our clients with legal services of immensely high quality.

What to Do When You Are Being Investigated by the SEC

If you find out that you or your firm is put under investigation or monitoring by the SEC San Francisco Regional Office, you must immediately take action. The most effective way to do so is by seeking legal representation as soon as the news of an SEC investigation reaches you. Ideally, you seek legal representation from our senior attorneys at Oberheiden P.C. Not only does our reputation as regards pleading our clients free from fraud charges, but we also live by a foolproof approach that almost works every time. To make this approach work, we call upon experienced attorneys, a great legal apparatus, and customer-friendly attitudes.

This foolproof approach starts with an internal review of the situation of you or your firm. Through this internal review, the intent is to gain insight into the allegations, your administration, your positives and negatives, and generally, everything there is to know about your business. This insight will contribute to minimizing your potential exposure and chances of criminal or civil liability in a later phase of the approach. To ensure that everything runs professionally during this internal review, our legal team tends to rely on outside counsel to build trust with our clients. Finally, if there is anything that the SEC could find on you that can potentially be incriminating, we will protect you on that level as well to the extent possible.

Through the acquired information on your situation, our legal team of experts will brainstorm extensively in order to come up with the best SEC fraud defense strategy for you personally. We will go out of our way to analyze different legal strategies thoroughly until we find the one most suitable for your company. This will be based on our assessment of your company’s positives and negatives from a legal point of view. As a result, you will be armed properly to hold your ground in SEC investigations. More importantly, our experience with creating efficient defense strategies will significantly increase your chances of avoiding criminal or civil liability. Accordingly, we will protect you against sanctions imposed by the SEC and we tend to be extremely successful in our endeavors.

This productive SEC fraud defense approach has contributed enormously to our exceptional legal reputation. We provide companies, executives, professional securities, and other insiders with a high degree of protection, which is definitely welcome pending SEC investigations. So, if you or your firm needs legal help to be a match for the SEC, please call us at 888-680-1745 or get in touch with our legal team. We will do everything in our power to build a strong, reliable SEC defense strategy to ensure that you avoid liability issues at all costs.