JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge:
Defendants-Appellants Pentagon Capital Management and Lewis Chester appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Sweet, Judge). After a bench trial, the district court found the defendants liable for securities fraud under Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"), Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"), and Rule 10b-5; ordered disgorgement; and imposed a civil penalty. Each monetary award was imposed jointly and severally in the amount of $38,416,500. We find no error in the district court's determination of liability, the amount of its disgorgement award, and its decision to impose that award jointly and severally. But we reverse the district court's imposition of joint and several liability for the civil penalty, vacate that penalty, and remand for reconsideration of its amount in
We assume the parties' familiarity with the background of this case and recite only those facts relevant on appeal. For additional detail, we refer the parties to the district court's thorough opinion. See SEC v. Pentagon Capital Mgmt. PLC, 844 F.Supp.2d 377 (S.D.N.Y.2012). The basis for the district court's imposition of fraud liability was the defendant's practice of late trading in the mutual fund market. Late trading occurs when, after the price of a mutual fund becomes fixed each day, an order is placed and executed as though it occurred at or before the time the price was determined, thereby allowing the purchaser to take advantage of information released after the price becomes fixed but before it can be adjusted the following day.
Mutual fund shares are priced according to the fund's "net asset value," or NAV. SEC Rule 22c-1, promulgated under the Investment Company Act of 1940, requires that a mutual fund calculate its NAV at least once per day, Monday through Friday. 17 C.F.R. § 270.22c-1(b)(1) (2013). A mutual fund's NAV is generally calculated "by using the closing prices of portfolio securities on the exchange or market on which the securities principally trade." Disclosure Regarding Market Timing and Selective Disclosure of Portfolio Holdings, 68 Fed.Reg. 70,402-01, 70,403 (proposed Dec. 17, 2003) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. pts. 239, 274) (final rule adopted in 69 Fed.Reg. 22,300). However, if the closing price of a security held in a mutual fund's portfolio does not reflect its current market value at the time of the fund's NAV calculation, a mutual fund must calculate its NAV "by using the fair value of that security, as determined in good faith by the fund's board." Id. This could occur, for example, when some price-affecting event occurs after the closing price is established but before the fund's NAV calculation. If a mutual fund's shares are mispriced, "an investor may take advantage of the disparity between the portfolio securities' last quoted prices and their fair value." Id.
Rule 22c-1 also requires that mutual funds "sell and redeem their shares at a price based on the NAV next computed after receipt of an order," a practice called "forward pricing." Id. (emphasis added); see also 17 C.F.R. § 270.22c-1(a). Forward pricing prevents dilution of mutual fund shares by keeping traders from profiting off of a stale share price. Some mutual fund investors, however, engage in late trading, "the practice of placing orders to buy or redeem mutual fund shares after 4 p.m., Eastern time, as of which most funds calculate their [NAV], but receiving the price based on the 4 p.m. NAV," instead of the next day's NAV, as required by Rule 22c-1. Disclosure, 68 Fed.Reg. at *70,402. In VanCook v. SEC, 653 F.3d 130 (2d Cir.2011), we held that such late trading violated Rule 22c-1.
Chester formed Pentagon Capital Management ("Pentagon") in 1998 to facilitate mutual fund trading in the European markets with a market timing strategy.
In the United States, unlike in Europe, Pentagon was required to trade through a broker. As relevant here, Pentagon primarily used two individual brokers, James Wilson and Scott Christian, first at other brokerage firms, and finally at Trautman, Wasserman & Company ("Trautman"). Pentagon began trading through Trautman on February 15, 2001.
Based on Pentagon's instructions, Wilson and Christian executed Pentagon's trades through Bank of America, Trautman's clearing broker. Notwithstanding that the NAV was normally fixed at 4:00 p.m., Bank of America used a processing system for mutual fund orders that allowed brokers to change an order until 5:15 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. and later, until 6:30 p.m.
The parties do not dispute that Pentagon utilized Bank of America's permissive clearing system to engage in late trading with the assistance of Trautman's brokers. Pentagon opened 67 different accounts with Trautman, each of which could trade separately without a mutual fund knowing they were related. Wilson and Christian registered the accounts with different broker numbers with the effect that if a mutual fund detected late trading or market timing and blocked one account from trading, other accounts could remain active. Pentagon knew that various of its accounts had been expelled from at least thirteen funds, but it continued to trade in those funds using different accounts.
In April 2001, Chester sent an email to Wilson and Christian detailing Pentagon's "After Hours Trading Instructions." Chester instructed that Wilson and Christian would receive a target figure on the Standard & Poors ("S & P") future
Pentagon, 844 F.Supp.2d at 400-01 (alterations omitted).
Thereafter, Christian would create potential trade sheets for Pentagon each day and time-stamp them before 4:00 p.m., notwithstanding that the actual decision to place the order or not would be made after 4:00 p.m. Then, sometime after 4:00 p.m., a Pentagon employee would email Christian the instructions for Pentagon's late trades for that day. The district court found that Pentagon realized profits of "approximately $38,416,500 from the U.S. mutual fund [late] trades they executed through [Trautman]" between February 15, 2001 and September 3, 2003. Id. at 427.
Pentagon tried to conceal its late trading activities. For example, on July 30, 2002, Chester sent an email to a broker that instructed him not to use the words "market timing" (which, viewed broadly, includes late trading) on any correspondence, telling him "`to label what we do... "dynamic asset allocation," but never market timing!'" Id. at 396. In August 2002, Chester instructed another Pentagon employee to "phone around First Union" to see if late trading was available because "late trading is key," adding "[I] don't know how you find out about this [late trading] without actually saying it. No doubt you'll work it out!" Id. at 408.
In September 2003, the New York Attorney General announced that it had settled an enforcement action with Canary Capital Partners for violations of the New York State securities laws, including late trading. Shortly thereafter, Chester received a request from an investor for a letter stating that Pentagon had not engaged in late trading or any other illegal activity. Chester provided the letter, stating that Pentagon had "`never entered into arrangements with any U.S. onshore Mutual Fund in order to trade post-4:00pm EST for same-day NAV,'" and that all of Pentagon's trading arrangements were "`in accordance with the relevant rules, regulations, investment prospectus, and/or any other such relevant documentation relating to the investment(s) concerned.'" Id. at 410.
On April 3, 2008, the SEC brought this enforcement action against Pentagon. The complaint alleged that Pentagon's market timing and late trading activities violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5. After a seventeen-day bench trial, the district court found Chester and
On appeal, Pentagon and Chester argue that they cannot be held liable because their actions involved no fraud or deceit and that as investment advisors (as opposed to brokers), they cannot be held primarily liable for securities fraud. They further argue that the district court made various errors related to the monetary awards. Following a bench trial, we review the district court's findings of fact for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. SEC v. Mayhew, 121 F.3d 44, 50 (2d Cir.1997).
Section 17(a) of the Securities Act makes it
15 U.S.C. § 77q(a) (2012). Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, in relevant part, makes it unlawful for any person to "use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange ... any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe." 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) (2012). Finally, Rule 10b-5, implementing Section 10(b), includes three subsections:
17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (2013).
We have held that to violate Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, a party must have "(1) made a material misrepresentation or a material omission as to which he had a duty to speak, or used a fraudulent device; (2) with scienter; (3) in connection with the purchase or sale of securities." SEC v. Monarch Funding Corp., 192 F.3d 295, 308 (2d Cir. 1999). The requirements for a violation of Section 17(a) apply only to a sale of securities but in other respects are the same as Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, except that "no showing of scienter is required for the SEC to obtain an injunction under [Section 17](a)(2) or (a)(3)." Id.
Pentagon and Chester do not deny that they engaged in late trading. The defendants argue, however, that there was no fraud or deceit in their actions. The defendants also argue that an investment advisor — as opposed to a broker — may not be held liable for securities fraud because the advisor is not responsible for communicating the direction to late trade to the clearing broker. We reject both arguments.
First, the defendants' argument that their lack of fraudulent or deceitful intent bars a finding of liability fails because deceitful intent is inherent in the act of late trading. The late trader places an order after the daily mutual fund price is set, but receives the benefit of additional information that the earlier price does not reflect. For this reason, we have held that late trading violates all three subsections of Rule 10b-5 because, as discussed above, it violates Rule 22c-1, the forward-pricing rule. See VanCook, 653 F.3d at 138. In VanCook, an individual broker sought out a clearing broker that would allow him to clear late trades, used time-stamped trade sheets as evidence that orders were placed before 4 p.m. when they were not, and assured his employer that he had not facilitated late trading. In short, "he was [the scheme's] architect." Id. at 139. We found that VanCook went beyond making misrepresentations, taking "a series of actions over several years to implement a scheme that he devised." Id. On these grounds, we held that VanCook's late trading violated all three subsections of Rule 10b-5. Although Section 17(a) was not at issue in VanCook, the requirements for a violation of Section 17(a), as relevant here, are identical to the requirements for a violation of Section 10(b). Thus, we have no trouble concluding that Section 17(a) is also implicated by late trading activity (so long as some of the late trading involves the sale of securities).
Pentagon and Chester engaged in similarly deceitful behavior. They sought out brokers who would engage in late trading. As evidenced by Chester's email, they knew that the trade sheets were time-stamped before 4 p.m., even though they had no intention of trading before that time. Finally, they issued a false and deceitful letter of assurance that they were not engaging in late trading, similar to VanCook's false assurances to his employer.
We also reject the defendants' corollary argument that they may not be held liable because they did not communicate directly with the mutual funds. In Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2296, 180 L.Ed.2d 166 (2011), shareholders of Janus Capital Group sued Janus Capital Group and Janus Capital Management for making false statements in mutual fund prospectuses filed by Janus Investment Fund. Because Janus Investment Fund retained ultimate control over the content of the prospectuses, the Supreme Court held that Janus Capital Management could not be liable as a "maker" of the statement under Rule 10b-5:
Id. at 2302. To illustrate its point, the Supreme Court used the analogy of "the relationship between a speechwriter and a speaker. Even when a speechwriter drafts a speech, the content is entirely within the control of the person who delivers it." Id. Pentagon and Chester argue that because they never communicated directly with the mutual funds, they cannot be held liable as "makers" of any false statements.
To the extent that late trading requires a "statement" in the form of a transmission to a clearing broker, we find that in this case, Pentagon and Chester were as much "makers" of those statements as were the brokers at Trautman. The brokers may have been responsible for the act of communication, but Pentagon and Chester retained ultimate control over both the
Moreover, we reaffirm our holding in VanCook and find that the defendants' activities violated all three subsections of Rule 10b-5, not just subsection (b), which was the only subsection at issue in Janus. Pentagon's late trading activity, beyond the communication of the trades themselves, included finding brokers and a clearing system that would allow late trades, as well as the specific coordination — on a daily basis — of the transmission of instructions to buy or sell or refrain from doing so based on NAVs and after-hours information. In short, Pentagon's fraudulent activities independently satisfy the requirements of scheme liability under Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) and Section 17(a).
We have considered the remainder of Pentagon's arguments and find them to be unpersuasive. The district court's determination of liability is affirmed.
The district court imposed joint and several liability for a disgorgement award and a civil penalty, each in the amount of $38,416,500. The district court first determined that both monetary awards would be imposed jointly and severally because the defendants (including the relief defendant) "collaborated on the mutual fund trading scheme, and [Chester and Pentagon] exercised complete control over PSPF's trading." 844 F.Supp.2d at 425. The district court then determined that a disgorgement award of $38,416,500 was appropriate because it was a reasonable approximation of the profit made through defendants' late trades with Trautman beginning in February 2001. Turning to the amount of the civil penalty, the district court applied Section 20(d) of the Securities Act and Section 21(d)(3) of the Exchange Act. Because the violation involved "`fraud, deceit, manipulation or deliberate or reckless disregard of a regulatory requirement' and `directly or indirectly resulted in substantial losses or created a significant risk of substantial losses to other persons,'" the district court awarded the maximum penalty, in this case, the gross amount of the pecuniary gain. Id. at 427 (quoting 15 U.S.C. §§ 77t(d), 78u(d)(3)). On appeal, Pentagon argues that the district court erred in setting the amounts and in imposing joint and several liability.
We review the district court's imposition of the civil penalty for abuse of discretion. See SEC v. Kern, 425 F.3d 143, 153 (2d Cir.2005) ("The tier determines the maximum [civil] penalty, with the actual amount of the penalty left up to the discretion of the district court.").
In light of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gabelli, 133 S.Ct. 1216, rendered after the district court's decision, we must vacate the district court's civil penalty award and remand it for reconsideration. In Gabelli, the Supreme Court held that the so-called "discovery rule," which tolls a statute of limitations for crimes that are difficult to detect, does not apply to toll the five-year statute of limitations for fraud cases in SEC enforcement actions. See id. at 1221-24. Thus, any profit earned through late trading earlier than five years before the SEC instituted its suit against the defendants may not be included as part of the civil penalty. All parties agree that remand on this issue is required.
We also must reverse the district court's decision to impose joint and several liability for the amount of the civil penalty as an error of law. See Johnson v. Univ. of Rochester Med. Ctr., 642 F.3d 121, 125 (2d Cir.2011) ("A court abuses its discretion
The district court's disgorgement award is also reviewed for abuse of discretion. See SEC v. Warde, 151 F.3d 42, 49 (2d Cir.1998).
We find no abuse of discretion in the amount of the disgorgement award, which reflected a "reasonable approximation of profits causally connected to the [late trading] violation." SEC v. First Jersey Sec., Inc., 101 F.3d 1450, 1475 (2d Cir.1996) (quotation marks omitted).
We also affirm the district court's decision to impose the disgorgement award jointly and severally on all defendants. Unlike the civil penalty, there is no statutory requirement that a disgorgement award be measured as to each individual defendant. The district court found that relief defendant PSPF opened accounts at Pentagon's direction and that defendants late-traded on PSPF's behalf. Hence, the district court found that defendants and PSPF had "collaborated" on the late trading scheme, and concluded that joint and several liability with respect to disgorgement was warranted. See id. at 97 (in reviewing disgorgement award, holding that "joitn and several liability for combined profits on collaborating ... parties" is "appropriate"). We agree with the district court that, in light of their collaboration, Pentagon, Chester, and PSPF should be held liable for the disgorgement award on a joint and several basis. See First Jersey, 101 F.3d at 1475-76 (affirming district court's decision to impose joint and several liability of disgorgement award).
For the foregoing reasons, the district court's rulings are AFFIRMED in part, VACATED in part, and REMANDED in part for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
SEC v. Gabelli, 653 F.3d 49, 53 (2d Cir.2011), rev'd on other grounds, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 1216, 185 L.Ed.2d 297 (2013).