offered to perform rituals that could improve one's romantic relationships.  Boiteux advertised these services on Facebook, Instagram, and MercadoLibre. The advertised services included casting spells designed to foster romantic relationships.

Clients who contacted Amarres Inmediatos soon learned that the rituals were performed remotely rather than in person. Clients were provided with a list of items to purchase, which typically included candles, alcohol, vegetables, and photographs. The ritual called for the client to drink alcohol, recite sexually explicit incantations, and perform sexual acts, all while recording the ritual. The client would then send the recordings of the ritual back to Boiteux and his associates, who would threaten to publicize the sexually explicit recordings unless the client paid an amount that far exceeded the initial price agreed upon for the ritual.  In his plea agreement, Boiteux admitted to researching the clients to see who would be susceptible to extortion. 

In February 2017, the plea agreement said, Boiteux obtained sensitive recordings of a client performing a ritual. The defendant researched the client's background and determined that she was a well-connected public figure with access to significant financial resources. Boiteux and his associates then contacted the client and threatened to publicize the recordings unless she paid more than $250,000.

According to the plea agreement, in the fall of 2017, an undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations called a phone number on the Amarres Inmediatos website and offered to purchase recordings of another victim, portions of which had been uploaded to publicly-available websites in an attempt to extort that victim.  Boiteux agreed to sell the recordings for thousands of dollars and instructed the undercover agent to send a money transfer through Western Union.  After the agent sent the money transfer, Paraguayan law enforcement officers waited at a Western Union in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay where Boiteux had picked up a previous money transfer. As expected, Boiteux arrived a short time later to pick up the transfer, but instead was arrested by Paraguayan officers.  Boiteux was extradited to San Diego in July 2018.

[B]etween approximately 2009 and 2014, Ng conspired with others to launder billions of dollars misappropriated and fraudulently diverted from 1MDB, including funds 1MDB raised in 2012 and 2013 through three bond transactions it executed with the Financial Institution.  As part of the scheme, Ng and others conspired to bribe government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain and retain lucrative business for the Financial Institution, including the 2012 and 2013 bond deals.  They also conspired to launder the proceeds of their criminal conduct through the U.S. through the promise and payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.  In the course of executing the scheme, Ng and others at the Financial Institution conspired to circumvent the Financial Institution's internal accounting controls. Through its work for 1MDB during that time, the Financial Institution received approximately $600 million in fees and revenues along with increased reputational prestige.  At the same time, Ng and other co-conspirators at the Financial Institution received large bonuses and enhanced their own reputations at the Financial Institution.  In total, Ng and the other co-conspirators misappropriated more than $2.7 billion from 1MDB.  Low remains at large.

[T]he Registration Statement contained material misstatements and omissions; and that Starkot failed to cooperate with, and attempted to obstruct, Commission staff's examination of the Registration Statement pursuant to Section 8(e) of the Securities Act. The OIP ordered Starkot to file an Answer within ten days after service of the OIP and ordered that a hearing on the allegations commence at 9:30 a.m. on May 6, 2019  . .

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former Broker for Defrauding Customers (SEC Release)
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2019/lr24464.htm
In a Complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that alleges that from July 2012 to October 2014, Rocco Roveccio recommended to seven customers a pattern of high-cost, in-and-out trading without any reasonable basis to believe that his customers could make a profit; and that said trades resulted in losses for the customers and gains for Roveccio. Also, Roveccio allegedly lied to his customers about the accounts' profit-potential; and he engaged in unauthorized trading and churning. The Court entered a final consent judgment, which permanently enjoins Roveccio from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act  and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act  and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and orders him to pay $324,614, consisting of $147,115 in disgorgement, $17,499 in prejudgment interest and a civil penalty of $160,000. Separately, the SEC instituted settled administrative proceedings against Roveccio; and thereafter, without admitting or denying the findings, Roveccio consented to an SEC order https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2019/34-85780.pdf barring him from the securities industry and penny stock trading. Roveccio was formerly associated with Alexander Capital L.P., and in June 2018, the SEC filed settled charges against the broker-dealer and two of its managers, including Roveccio's former supervisor; and in September 2017 and March 2019., the SEC also settled with two other former Alexander Capital brokers.