On July 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained partial consent judgments against defendants Joshua Turney, Hector Perez, and Barbara Desiderio in an ongoing civil action in which the SEC alleges that the defendants conducted a fraudulent unauthorized trading scheme through retail customer accounts at New York broker-dealer Global Arena Capital Corp.

The SEC's complaint, filed on March 31, 2020 in the Eastern District of New York against Turney, Perez, Desiderio, and a fourth defendant, Jonah Engler, alleges that the defendants engaged in a scheme to conduct voluminous unauthorized trading in over 360 retail customer accounts as Global Arena was going out of business. The unauthorized trading allegedly resulted in over $4 million in net losses for their customers and generated over $2.4 million in unlawful markups, markdowns, and commissions for their firm.

The SEC's complaint charged Engler, Turney, and Perez with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, and Desiderio with aiding and abetting Engler's, Turney's, and Perez's violations. Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, Turney, Perez, and Desiderio consented to the entry of judgments permanently enjoining them from violating these provisions. The judgments reserve the issues of any additional remedies, including disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties, for further determination by the court upon motion by the SEC. The SEC's claims against Engler are pending.

Based on the entry of the consent judgments, on August 11, 2020, the SEC issued orders permanently barring Turney, Perez, and Desiderio, from association with any broker, dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or nationally recognized statistical rating organization, and from participating in any offering of a penny stock.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Hane L. Kim, Margaret Spillane, Jacqueline Fine, Sandra Yanez, and Steven G. Rawlings, and supervised by Lara S. Mehraban. The SEC's litigation is being led by Richard Primoff, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Spillane. The SEC thanks the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for its assistance in this matter.