SEC Alert! Barclays Agrees to a $361 Million Settlement to Resolve SEC Charges Relating to Over-Issuances of Securities
Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-179
The SECโs order states that, following a settled Commission action against a BBPLC affiliate in May 2017, BBPLC lost its status as a well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI). As a result, BBPLC had to quantify the total number of securities that it anticipated offering and selling and pay registration fees for those offerings upon the filing of a new registration statement. The SECโs order notes that, given this requirement, BBPLC personnel understood that the firm needed to track actual offers and sales of securities against the amount of registered offers and sales on a real-time basis; yet, no internal control was established for this purpose. According to the SECโs order, as a result of this failure, BBPLC offered and sold approximately $17.7 billion of securities in unregistered transactions. As the SECโs order states, BBPLC self-reported its over-issuances to regulators, provided meaningful cooperation during the SEC staffโs investigation, and subsequently commenced a rescission offer.
The SECโs order finds that BBPLC violated provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and that both firms violated provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Without admitting or denying the SECโs findings, both firms agreed to cease-and-desist from violating the charged provisions and to comply with certain undertakings designed to effect compliance with Section 5 of the Securities Act, in addition to paying the $200 million civil penalty. BBPLC also agreed to pay disgorgement of $149,731,011 and prejudgment interest of $11,463,229, deemed satisfied by its offer of rescission.
