The SEC announced last week that it was bringing charges against Benjamin Wey, a Wall Street CEO, and his company, New York Global Group (NYGG), over allegations that they participated in a scheme to manipulate stock in Chinese companies after reverse mergers.
According to the SEC, Wey and his company concealed their scheme to take control of stock in Chinese companies all the while claiming to be guiding these companies through the process of becoming publicly traded in the U.S.
The SEC says that Wey and his associates organized reverse mergers in order to gain five or more percent ownership interests. To keep it a secret, Wey and his company allegedly divided the shares up in numerous foreign accounts. According to the SEC, this scheme generated tens of millions of dollars in profit.
In addition to the SEC’s fraud charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York will also be bringing criminal charges against Wey and a man named Dogan Erbek, the Wey family’s Swiss broker.
In a statement, the SEC accuses the Wey, some of his family members, and NYGG of purporting to help Chinese companies go public in order to conceal the fact that they were profiting from gaining control of their clients’ shares.
The Weys and NYGG are currently under investigation, and all violations at this point are alleged.
