The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged Jonathan Larmore, a Phoenix-based real-estate investor, with stock manipulation tied to a false tender offer for now-bankrupt WeWork, the Wall Street Journal reported. The SEC charges also allege that ArciTerra Companies, a real estate investment company, and Larmore, who is the company’s chief executive, misappropriated more than $35 million in managed funds over a number of years. The SEC alleges that Larmore had, since at least January 2017, used a “substantial portion” of misappropriated funds from ArciTerra for family members’ expenses and to fund a lifestyle that included private jets, yachts and expensive residences. Earlier this month, according to the SEC, Larmore and Cole Capital Funds, an entity created and controlled by Larmore, issued a press release saying the firm would purchase 51% of all minority ownership shares in WeWork for $9 a share. The offer, priced at more than nine times WeWork’s stock price at the time, prompted shares to more than double after-hours. Larmore allegedly purchased 72,000 call options in WeWork in the days before and planned to execute on the trades once the stock rose.
