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The U.S. Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) says it has charged 16 defendants with participating in multiyear penny stock schemes that generated more than $194 million in illicit proceeds, Reuters reported. The defendants, which include 15 individuals and one company, are located in the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom, the SEC said in a statement. In three separate complaints filed in federal court in New York, the SEC alleged the defendants amassed shares of microcap stocks and then benefited from secretly funded campaigns designed to promote the publicly traded companies. The SEC enforcement director described them as "some of the most complex microcap stock fraud schemes ever charged by the SEC" in a statement. The defendants located their operations overseas and used encrypted messaging and a convoluted network of offshore accounts to evade detection, the SEC said.

A trio of federal agencies on Monday issued a joint advisory on the growing risk of cyber threats involving cryptocurrency from a North Korean group, The Hill reported. The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Department of the Treasury highlighted the tactics used by a North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group. The agencies said the APT group targeted various organizations in the cryptocurrency industry such as play-to-earn crypto video games, crypto trading companies and individual holders of valuable non-fungible tokens, often referred to as NFTs. The cyber actors used a variety of communication platforms to target victims, encouraging them to download trojanized cryptocurrency applications through their devices, the agencies said. The group used the fake applications to gain access to the user’s network, stealing private keys or exploiting other security gaps, according to the advisory.

A Georgia insurance company owner has been sentenced to eight months in prison after prosecutors said he lied in bankruptcy court and on his federal tax returns, the Insurance Journal reported. Jacques Andres Frym, who owned businesses in the Savannah, Ga., area, pleaded guilty last year to lying under oath about his income. Frym at one time owned Federal Employee Benefits LLC, an insurance company, along with real estate and other interests, federal court records show. In 2016, Frym filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to manage more than $5 million in debt. But he falsely testified that he performed no work for and had no income from Federal Employee Benefits, according to the charging information sheet. “In fact, the defendant knew that he sold, and was the primary individual responsible for selling, insurance contracts on behalf of Federal Employee Benefits,” prosecutors noted in the filing. He also understated his income on his 2017 tax return, court records show. In addition to jail time, Frym must also pay $112,000 in restitution and a $30,000 fine. Once released, he will face three years of supervised release, the federal court said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused a Las Vegas lawyer and six other men of violating federal securities law for their involvement in an alleged Ponzi scheme that raised around $450 million from investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Authorities said the alleged scheme unraveled last month when attorney Matthew Beasley confessed to running a Ponzi scheme after he was shot by federal agents who had come to his house March 3. In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid with funds raised from later investors while the money raised is generally not invested. Mr. Beasley and Jeffrey Judd, president of J&J Consulting Services Inc. and two similarly named entities involved in the alleged scheme, were identified as defendants in an SEC suit, along with five men who worked to promote the companies and attract investors in return for commissions. A lawyer for Mr. Judd in civil matters said he was a victim of Mr. Beasley’s misrepresentations. A lawyer for Mr. Beasley didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. J&J raised funds from investors, saying the firm was providing advances to people who had settled personal-injury lawsuits. Promoters for the firm said the investments provided high returns with no risk.

A former Goldman Sachs banker was convicted on Friday of bribery and other corruption charges accusing him of participating in a $4.5 billion scheme to ransack the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB, the Associated Press reported. A jury reached the verdict at the U.S. trial of Roger Ng in federal court in Brooklyn. Jurors had heard nearly two months of evidence about tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks allegedly orchestrated by Malaysian financier and fugitive socialite Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low. Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told reporters outside court that he was surprised by the verdict because “the evidence wasn’t reliable,” and that he was considering an appeal. The embezzlement bankrolled lavish spending on jewels, art, a superyacht and luxury real estate. The spoils even helped finance wild parties and Hollywood movies, including the 2013 Martin Scorsese film “The Wolf of Wall Street” that starred Leonardo DiCaprio. Ng faces up to 30 years in prison. No sentencing date was set. A former head of investment banking in Malaysia, Ng is the only Goldman banker to stand trial in the 1MDB scandal. The 49-year-old had pleaded not guilty to three counts — conspiring to launder money and violating two anti-bribery laws. Prosecutors alleged that Ng and other Goldman Sachs bankers helped 1MDB raise $6.5 billion through bond sales — only to divert $4.5 billion of it to themselves and their co-conspirators through bribes and kickbacks.

Once conduits for hundreds of millions of dollars looted from 1MDB, a group of offshore entities are being repurposed to try to track down the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s stolen money, Bloomberg News reported. Three British Virgin Islands-based companies linked to 1MDB on Tuesday filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in Florida, utilizing the section of the U.S. code that allows foreign debtors to bring proceedings in the states. Their aim is to recover a portion of the $8.5 billion allegedly stolen from 1MDB, some of which may be in the U.S., the companies said. The offshore entities were “part of the fraud perpetrated against 1 Malaysia Development Berhad,” they said in the filing, with some likely created solely to receive stolen funds or transfer them on to other entities. They are now being overseen by administrators appointed by the Malaysian government. The overseers for the funds “have identified various individuals and entities located in the United States who either participated or otherwise possess knowledge” related to the transactions at issue, according to court papers. “Some of the missing funds passed through U.S. entities, including investment managers, fund managers and other U.S. entities who provided services to the participants in the fraud.”

A U.S. jury began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker accused of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman's former top investment banker for Malaysia, helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from 1MDB, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. The Malaysian fund had been founded to pursue development projects in the Southeast Asian country. Ng has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launder money and violating an anti-corruption law. His lawyers said Leissner, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, falsely implicated Ng in the hope of receiving a lenient sentence. The charges stemmed from one of the biggest financial scandals in history. According to U.S. prosecutors, Goldman helped 1MDB raise $6.5 billion through three bond sales, but $4.5 billion was diverted to government officials, bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks.

An attorney who's admitted to a federal bribery charge for his role in the ongoing Los Angeles Department of Water and Power corruption investigation has asked a bankruptcy judge in Arizona for permission to take a deposition of LA City Attorney Mike Feuer, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. Paul O. Paradis, who entered a guilty plea in Los Angeles in January in the bribery case, made the request under a court rule that could allow Feuer's sworn testimony, and the discovery of a variety of records, to take place before it would typically be allowed in pretrial proceedings. The judge yesterday denied the special request, but said Feuer's testimony and documents would likely be relevant and part of regular discovery that takes place in the bankruptcy proceedings. Paradis filed for bankruptcy and the City of Los Angeles filed a related lawsuit seeking to recover millions of dollars paid to Paradis through an allegedly corrupt contract. Paradis' attorney, Alan Meda, told the court Tuesday that he and his client requested the special discovery procedure because they're focused on learning more about a Dec. 1, 2017 meeting, at which officials in the City Attorney's Office allegedly discussed how to cover up legal misconduct in the handling of the lawsuits that stemmed from the LA DWP's excessive billing debacle.