LFIN: Block Chain Company Fraud? Stocks Halted

SEC Obtains Emergency Freeze of $27 Million in Stock Sales of Purported Cryptocurrency Company Longfin

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-61

Washington D.C., April 6, 2018 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a court order freezing more than $27 million in trading proceeds from allegedly illegal distributions and sales of restricted shares of Longfin Corp. stock involving the company, its CEO, and three other affiliated individuals.

According to a complaint unsealed today in federal court in Manhattan, shortly after Longfin began trading on NASDAQ and announced the acquisition of a purported cryptocurrency business, its stock price rose dramatically and its market capitalization exceeded $3 billion. The SEC alleges that Amro Izzelden “Andy” Altahawi, Dorababu Penumarthi, and Suresh Tammineedi then illegally sold large blocks of their restricted Longfin shares to the public while the stock price was highly elevated. Through their sales, Altahawi, Penumarthi, and Tammineedi collectively reaped more than $27 million in profits.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Longfin’s founding CEO and controlling shareholder, Venkata Meenavalli, caused the company to issue more than two million unregistered, restricted shares to Altahawi, who was the corporate secretary and a director of Longfin, and tens of thousands of restricted shares to two other affiliated individuals, Penumarthi and Tammineedi, who were allegedly acting as nominees for Meenavalli. The subsequent sales of those restricted shares violated federal securities laws that restrict trading in unregistered shares distributed to company affiliates.

“We acted quickly to prevent more than $27 million in alleged illicit trading profits from being transferred out of the country,” said Robert Cohen, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit. “Preventing defendants from transferring this money offshore will ensure that these funds remain available as the case continues.”

The SEC’s complaint, which was filed under seal on April 4, charges Longfin, Meenavalli, Altahawi, Penumarthi, and Tammineedi with violating Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and penalties, among other relief.

The SEC’s continuing investigation is being conducted by Ernesto Amparo, Robert Nesbitt, and Adam B. Gottlieb and supervised by Anita B. Bandy and Mr. Cohen. The litigation is being led by Sarah Heaton Concannon and Kevin Lombardi and supervised by Stephan Schlegelmilch and Cheryl Crumpton.

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Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/up-and-down-ipo-longfin-is-facing-an-sec-probe-1522712325

Longfin Corp. LFIN took advantage of post-financial-crisis rules designed to create jobs and help young companies go public. But the financial-technology company, which was valued at $5.4 billion as recently as 10 days ago, is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission after it failed to disclose important information and left a trail of misstatements behind.

Since Longfin’s December initial public offering, which raised $5.7 million, the company’s price first rose 13-fold, then fell by 80%, all in less than four months. In the run-up to the IPO, the company, which says it operates computer platforms for trading on the Singapore and other stock exchanges, failed to disclose important information and misstated facts as basic as the age of its controlling shareholder, according to a review of securities filings.

On Monday, the company disclosed the SEC probe while also reporting material weaknesses in financial controls. The company, which said it is cooperating with the probe, said it may not be able to continue as a going concern.

The shares closed Monday down 17% at $14.31, above its IPO price of $5.

Longfin went public using a provision of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, known as Reg A+. The rules allow companies with less than $1 billion in annual sales to bypass some accounting and disclosure requirements imposed on bigger companies, but they do require accurate reporting.

The other nine Reg A+ IPOs that have listed on U.S. exchanges or been issued over the counter have lost more than half their value on average, Dealogic data show.

Concerns about Longfin shine a light on the apparent ease with which IPOs are being approved under the Reg A+ regime, lawyers said. “Everyone understood we were rationalizing the disclosures [required] but nothing as flimsy as what appears to have happened here,” said James Cox, a law professor at Duke University. “We’re going to look back on Reg A+ and think this was an experiment that didn’t get managed very well.”

The SEC gave Longfin the green light to sell shares based on one month’s audited financial statements, which showed that 96% of the company’s expenses were paid to a company controlled by Longfin’s owner, Venkat Meenavalli, an Indian entrepreneur. The company also provided two years of audited statements for a Singaporean subsidiary, which generates most of its revenue.

An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Mr. Meenavalli, who says he controls 90% of Longfin shares, told The Wall Street Journal he is “based out of Dubai” but intends to spend 15 days a month in the U.S. He said its sole U.S. office space—a small room with three desks and no computers in a shared-office building in downtown Manhattan that was deserted at 9:30 on a recent weekday morning—is temporary. Longfin plans to open a bigger office in New York and is hiring more U.S. employees, he added.

Mr. Meenavalli rejects any suggestion of financial misconduct, saying short sellers, who have borrowed and sold short almost 15% of the shares available to trade, according to FactSet, are motivated by greed. “They enter into their own fire,” he said.

A tiny portion of Longfin shares were sold in the Dec. 13 IPO. Two days later, Longfin disclosed that its chief financial officer and chief operating officer had resigned just before the offering. But on the same day, the company said it had acquired a crypto company, Ziddu.com, from a company controlled by Mr. Meenavalli.

Longfin shares rose more than 1,200% over the next two sessions to a peak value of $72.38.

Mr. Meenavalli is 48 years old, according to records he confirmed in an interview, although in a May 2017 SEC filing he is listed as 45. Described in that filing as “a financial wizard,” his biographies for some earlier companies show him having a computer-science degree from Australia’s Suffield University. His Longfin biography lists a diploma in international trade finance from Middlesex University in the U.K.

In SEC filings, Longfin reported it had 20 employees in March 2017. The number dropped to two the following month, rose to 15 in July, fell to three in November and was reported as 18 on Monday. A filing in July 2017 listed Sarah Altahawi, 23, as a New York-based executive. Ms. Altahawi said Monday she is not a company officer, “so that was a mistake.”

Her father, Andy Altahawi, said she was a secretary. He was issued 2 million Longfin shares for advising on its IPO, according to filings. He said he “managed the SEC process as a consultant” and didn’t act as a banker or underwriter. Mr. Altahawi was listed on Longfin’s website as a director until September, when the SEC questioned why he wasn’t included in the company’s filings.

“I’m not a director…never was—what was online was untrue,” he said. Mr. Meenavalli said Mr. Altahawi was an officer for two months but then resigned and declined an invitation to join the board.

At its peak value, Longfin was included for eight trading days in the Russell 2000 small-company stock index, which would draw in some of the $122 billion in funds that follow the index. Short-sellers said Russell made a mistake because just 1.5% of Longfin’s shares traded, below the 5% minimum. Russell said it made the decision based on Longfin’s IPO disclosures, which said more shares would trade. Its reversal, announced March 26, sent the shares down 41% the next day.

Mr. Meenavalli told the Journal Friday that the company now has a 7% free float thanks to the unlocking of some IPO shares. Mr. Meenavalli said Russell told him “they are going to include us back.”

A spokesman for Russell said Longfin would be assessed like any other company during the next quarterly index update. The spokesman also confirmed that the Journal’s calculation, based on available information, that only 4% of the shares are available for trading “is accurate.”

Mr. Meenavalli said Longfin “went through a stringent process of [approval by] SEC and Nasdaq” and that its filings are being unfairly judged against the tougher standards set for bigger companies.

Write to Jean Eaglesham at jean.eaglesham@wsj.com and Aaron Back at aaron.back@wsj.com

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