SEC Gains Default Judgment Against Euro Enterprises Promoter

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York Sept. 14 granted the Securities and Exchange Commission a default judgment against a promoter and affiliates running a Ponzi scheme involving purported investments in “European enterprises” (SEC v. Bass).

Judge Lawrence E. Kahn enjoined the defendants—Christopher Bass and the corporation and limited partnerships that he operated through—from further violations of the federal securities laws.

The court said that the SEC’s pleadings, taken as true, establish violations of securities registration requirements and antifraud provisions of the securities statutes.

In this case, the court wrote, the defendants’ scheme was ...