| Americas | Articles
A former securities compliance examiner has been sentenced to nine months home confinement for accessing confidential information while at the SEC.
Michael Cohn, who worked in the Asset Management Unit of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, was charged by the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Cohn’s sentence related to an SEC investigation into GPB Capital Holdings, a Long Island-based private equity firm.
GPB Capital, its CEO, and the head of its placement agency were under investigation on allegations they defrauded 17,000 retail investors of $1.7 billion in a Ponzi-like scheme. Mr. Cohn admitted to having intentionally accessed confidential SEC information related to the SEC’s probe into GPB Capital. Mr. Cohn used the information accessed to prepare for his job interview with GPB Capital. Ultimately, Mr. Cohn was hired as chief compliance officer at GPB Capital Holdings LLC making $400,000 a year.
GPB Capital fired Mr. Cohn after learning of the charges against him.
