Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm that President-elect Donald Trump nominated for secretary of commerce, will pay a $6.75 million civil penalty after the incident. He was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with violating disclosure laws.
The SEC said the global financial services company violated laws governing disclosure related to so-called “blank check companies.”
Federal regulators charged Cantor with “causing two controlled special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to make misleading statements to investors” ahead of their initial public offerings in 2020 and 2021. announced that it had been done.
Cantor, whose chairman and CEO is Howard Lutnick, Trump's transition co-chairman and nominee for Commerce Secretary, is suing the SEC by pledging to pay a $6.75 million civil penalty. agreed to the solution.
The company also vowed not to violate the securities laws at issue in the lawsuit.
SEC Commissioner Mark T. Ueda said: issued a statement of opposition In it, he disagreed with the agency's conclusion that investors were harmed.
“No investors have been harmed by the issues described in the order,” a Kantar spokesperson told the Post. “We are pleased to be able to conclude this transaction by mutual agreement with the SEC.”
The charges relate to Cantor's management of CF Finance Acquisition Corp II and CF Acquisition Corp V, which each received $750 million from investors through IPOs prior to their mergers with View and Satellogic. Procured.
“The SEC's order finds that Cantor Fitzgerald caused the SPAC to deny in its SEC filings any contact or substantive discussions with potential business combination targets prior to its IPO.” said. said in a press release Thursday..
At the time of the two IPOs, a representative from Cantor, which represents the blank check company, said it was “already in talks with a small group of potential target companies for the SPAC, including View and Satellogic, the companies that the SPAC ultimately merged with.” ”, the SEC said.
“Cantor Fitzgerald has not identified any potential merger targets despite having substantial discussions with several private companies (including SPAC partners) regarding the possibility of a merger. , repeatedly stated in public filings that they were not close to doing so, and misled investors about important investment considerations, “and ultimately merged,'' said Sanjay Wadhwa, acting head of the SEC's Enforcement Division.
Mr. Lutnick, who joined Cantor in 1983 and quickly rose through the ranks to become president and CEO in 1991, was listed as a candidate for Treasury secretary and eventually became president and CEO of former George Soros. Administrator Scott Bessent has been selected.
Secretary Cantor was a big fundraiser for Mr. Trump, but he was supported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, another major donor to Mr. Trump. He himself has had conflicts with the SEC.
Earlier this week, the SEC announced in a letter to Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro that it had reopened its investigation into Musk's brain chip startup Neuralink.
On Thursday, Musk posted a letter his attorney received from the agency. It included a “settlement request” regarding “certain purchases, sales, and disclosures of Twitter stock,” or “various charges.”
“Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” Musk wrote of X, referring to outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
The post included an emoji of a face holding back tears and a copy of Spiro's letter.
Musk also posted an AI-generated image of Gensler depicted as a snail-like creature wearing a suit.
A federal judge in November rejected the SEC's request for sanctions against Musk for failing to appear for court-ordered testimony related to the Twitter acquisition investigation into whether he violated securities laws in 2022.
The same committee filed a lawsuit in 2018 over Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private.
He settled the case by paying a $20 million fine, agreeing to let Tesla's lawyers pre-review some posts, and resigning as chairman.
with post wire
