The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed an action against Ignite International Brands, Ltd., a publicly traded company based in Ontario, Canada, seeking an order directing it to comply with an investigative subpoena for documents.

According to the SEC's filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the SEC is investigating, among other things, whether Ignite violated the federal securities laws by making false or misleading statements in reporting its 2020 financial results. The filing states that the SEC has reason to believe that Ignite improperly recognized and reported certain revenues as part of its 2020 financial statements. The filing alleges that SEC staff served Ignite with an investigative subpoena requiring the production of certain documents, but that, despite multiple accommodations by the SEC staff, Ignite has failed to produce the full set of requested documents.

The SEC seeks an order from the court directing Ignite to show cause why the court should not compel it to produce documents as required by the subpoena. The SEC further seeks an order from the court, following its ruling on the order to show cause, directing Ignite to comply fully with the subpoena. The SEC is continuing its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.