Federal securities regulators in Atlanta on Thursday accused an Alpharetta currency trader of running a $25 million Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission have accused CRE Capital Corp. and James G. Ossie with violating federal securities laws. The SEC said CRE Capital and Ossie, the firm’s president, promised investors 10 percent profits per months on currency trades in the U.S. and Japan. At least 120 investors bought into the Ponzi scheme, the SEC said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

“CRE does not generate sufficient returns from currency trading to pay the promised returns,” the SEC said in a court filing. “The investment program is a Ponzi scheme and returns to investors are paid from funds contributed by new investors.”

Taylor English Duma attorney Bill Leonard is representing CRE Capital and Ossie.

Bryan Cave Powell Goldstein partners Thomas S. Richey and Jennifer D. Odom and associates Jason R. Curles, Stacey G. Evans, all in Atlanta, are representing the court-appointed receiver, GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC managing director Michael Fuqua.

Handling the matter for the SEC are District Trial Counsel William P. Hicks, Senior Trial Counsel Alana R. Black and attorney W. Shawn Murnahan.

The Securities & Exchange Commission has dismissed its probe of alleged stock-options backdating violations at Atlanta’s TurboChef Technologies Inc.

The SEC sent a no-action letter on Nov. 6 to TurboChef’s outside counsel on the internal investigation, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker partner Walter Jospin.

“We do not intend to recommend any enforcement action by the Commission,” the SEC said in the letter.

The SEC began its investigation in March 2007, according to TurboChef’s 2007 annual report, saying it was looking into the company’s stock option grants dating back to Jan. 1997. In response to the SEC notice, TurboChef hired Paul Hastings as legal counsel, and Deloitte Financial Advisory Services as “forensic accounting experts,” to conduct its internal investigation, the annual report says. TurboChef’s audit committee hired Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel partner Thomas Molner as its legal counsel.

As a result of its internal investigation, TurboChef restated its financial results for 2004 and 2005, saying different measurement dates should have been used.

TurboChef in August announced that it would merge with Middleby Corp. in a $200 million deal. Paul Hastings also advised TurboChef on that assignment, with partner Rey Pascual taking the lead role. TurboChef makes high-speed ovens used at Subway and other restaurants.

The star-crossed run of a Gwinnett County order-fulfillment company appears to be nearing a close.

Innotrac Corp., of Duluth, announced on Oct. 6 that GSI Commerce Inc. would acquire the company for $62 million in cash, stock and assumed debt. The merged company, which will retain the Innotrac name, combines Innotrac’s business of fulfilling customer orders for Target and AT&T with GSI Commerce’s business of operating web sites for American Eagle Outfitters, Toys “R” Us and other retailers.

Kilpatrick Stockton partners David Stockton and David Eaton in Atlanta advised Innotrac. Blank Rome partner Francis E. Dehel in Philadelphia advised GSI Commerce.

For Innotrac, the deal represents more than a strategic combination with a rival. It allows Innotrac to untangle itself from a criminal probe of a Ponzi scheme that was not of its own doing. A federal judge and a court-appointed receiver have both concluded that Innotrac was not involved with the operation of the Ponzi scheme and was not at fault.

More...

Cahill Gordon & Reindel partners David Kelley [left] and David Januszewski in New York represented Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA Inc. in reaching a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on a probe of possible accounting irregularities and questionable management of its mortgage business.

As part of the settlement, Beazer will not pay a fine and did not admit wrongdoing. The SEC said on Wednesday that its investigation is continuing. The prosecution was handled by lawyers in the SEC Atlanta office, led by attorney Kit Addleman.

"We have reached this resolution with the company, but we'll continue to look at the conduct of others, including individuals that may have been employed" by Beazer, Addleman said.

According to SEC documents, the agency found that the homebuilder Beazer misstated net income and engaged in fraudulent earnings management practices by decreasing its reported net income by improperly increasing certain reported operating expenses and by other means. Beazer consented to a cease-and-desist order that requires “future compliance with certain provisions” of federal laws and regulations, the company said in a news release.

Beazer said in a regulatory filing that it’s still being investigated by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and by other unnamed state and federal agencies for the same alleged accounting irregularities.

According to the Cahill web site, Kelley is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As co-chairman of the Justice Department’s task force on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Kelley personally prosecuted “American Taliban” suspect John Walker Lindh.

Luis A. Aguilar was sworn in on Thursday as the newest commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a brief ceremony at the SEC’s regional office on Lenox Road in Atlanta, Aguilar took his oath from Clayton County (Ga.) Superior Court Judge Matthew O. Simmons, whom Aguilar described as a law school classmate and a long-time friend.

Aguilar will also have a second swearing-in ceremony in Washington, but the soon-to-be former McKenna Long & Aldridge partner said he wanted Atlanta to host a swearing-in as a way for him to pay tribute to where he began his legal career. Aguilar will also maintain a satellite SEC office in Atlanta, in addition to his official office in the District of Columbia.

Aguilar’s ceremony was attended by numerous members of the SEC’s Atlanta staff, as well as members of the local securities bar and other attorneys. Some of those in attendance were U.S. Attorney David Nahmias; Atlanta SEC regional director Kit Addleman; DeKalb State Court Judge Antonio DelCampo; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker partner Walt Jospin; Powell Goldstein partner Scott Sorrels; Schiff Hardin partner Michael Wolensky; and McKenna Long partner David Brown.

McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Luis Aguilar will break with tradition when he’s formally appointed a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aguilar’s official swearing-in will be in Atlanta—not Washington, where the SEC is headquartered. Aguilar wanted the SEC’s Atlanta office to be the site of his swearing-in because that’s where he began his legal career, said Kit Addleman, SEC regional director in Atlanta.

“This is his way of providing a tribute to his roots here, to his beginnings as a young staff SEC lawyer,” Addleman said.

The swearing-in, by invitation only, is scheduled for Thursday, July 31 at 9 a.m. Aguilar will also have an unofficial swearing-in at the SEC offices in Washington, Addleman said.

Elisse B. Walter was sworn in as SEC commissioner on July 9 at the SEC's headquarters in Washington.

Aguilar’s primary office will be in Washington, but he will also maintain a satellite office in the Atlanta SEC office. That’s not uncommon, Addleman said. Other SEC commissioners have done the same: former commissioner Roel Campos maintained an office in Houston and former commissioner Norman S. Johnson kept an office in Salt Lake City.

Aguilar said that when he officially becomes an SEC commissioner, he’ll resign as a partner of McKenna Long & Aldridge, as per SEC rules.

The U.S. Senate on Friday approved McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Luis Aguilar to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he was pleased that Senate Democrats were able to reach a deal with Republican lawmakers and the Bush administration to fill so many positions, Dow Jones reported. Reid said, “We are restoring Democratic representation to the SEC, where it had been absent.”

Aguilar, an Atlanta-based corporate attorney, fills a vacancy created when Roel C. Campos left the SEC last fall.

The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday confirmed the nomination of McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Luis Aguilar to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aguilar’s nomination now must be confirmed by the full Senate.

Aguilar, of Atlanta, was one of two Democrats and named to the five-member SEC, along with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority executive vice president Elisse Walter. The Senate Banking Committee confirmed Aguilar and Walter, as well as Republican nominee Troy Paredes.

McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Luis Aguilar, a nominee to the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he supports adding regulations and staff to the federal agency to oversee investment banks, Reuters reported.

According to testimony submitted in response to questions from U.S. senators, Aguilar said he’d support additional rules for firms like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, if needed, to protect investors and promote market stability. Investment banking supervision has been scrutinized since Bear Stearns nearly collapsed when its liquidity dried up in March.

Aguilar also said the SEC should consider working with Congress to review the regulatory framework as there appears to be no regulatory agency with explicit statutory authority over investment banks.

Aguilar, a corporate, securities, international and investment advisors partner in Atlanta, was nominated by President Bush in March to fill two Democratic slots on the SEC.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will seek more than $100 million in fines and restitution against Atlanta-based CompuCredit Corp. and affiliate banks, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Kirkland & Ellis partner Pat A. Cipollone in Washington is advising CompuCredit on the matter, said FTC spokesman Frank Dorman.

CompuCredit said in a May 7 regulatory filing that it was in discussions with both the FTC and FDIC, the newspaper said. CompuCredit said in the regulatory filing that the agencies, starting in 2006, began investigating its "policies, practices and procedures used in connection with our credit card originating financial institution relationships. ... we expect to enter into settlement agreements with the FDIC and FTC limiting certain marketing, servicing and collection practices ... and requiring us to credit various fees to affected customers."

On Tuesday, the FTC said in a news release that it and the FDIC will charge an unnamed company with "using deceptive marketing practices and abusive debt collection tactics affecting consumers in the subprime market.” The Wall Street Journal said the charges will be issued against CompuCredit and the banks that issue CompuCredit's credit cards.

The FTC plans to file a suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, charging credit-card-marketing and debt-collection companies with using deceptive practices aimed at borrowers with poor credit, the WSJ said. The FDIC plans to file administrative charges against CompuCredit.

On Tuesday, CompuCredit said that the charges it anticipates the agencies to file are "untrue and without merit."

"The credit card programs at issue complied with applicable laws and regulations," CompuCredit said in a statement. "In fact, the FDIC repeatedly determined over the years now at issue that the marketing materials fully disclosed fees and terms in compliance with consumer protection laws."

In 2006, CompuCredit and Synovus Financial Corp.'s Columbus Bank & Trust, which has issued CompuCredit’s cards, reached an agreement with former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to pay $11 million in restitution to New York customers based on deceptive practices.

CompuCredit markets credit cards, under the brands Aspire and Emerge, to consumers with poor credit histories.