On October 21, 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a default judgment against Shamoon Omer Rafiq, a Dutch citizen residing in Singapore who was previously charged by the SEC with defrauding investors by offering to sell them approximately $9 million in fictitious securities.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed on March 12, 2021, since July 2020, Rafiq sought to defraud investors out of millions of dollars by offering to sell them securities purporting to represent Rafiq's ownership in an SPV (special purpose vehicle) Fund that, Rafiq claimed, held pre-IPO shares of a well-known company. The complaint alleges that, as part of his sales pitch, Rafiq falsely claimed that the SPV Fund was controlled by a well-known European investment firm run by a prominent family, and that Rafiq was a close associate of the firm and its members. As the complaint further alleges, however, the SPV Fund did not exist, and Rafiq had no connection to, or association with the investment firm or its family owners.

The default judgment entered against Rafiq permanently enjoins him from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and imposes a penalty of $195,047.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Liora Sukhatme, Jack Kaufman, and Gerald A. Gross, and supervised by Lara S. Mehraban, all of the New York Regional Office. Jack Kaufman and Liora Sukhatme litigated the matter.

See also: Litigation Release No. 25049 (March 12, 2021)