The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against a publicly traded company and its top executive, alleging they falsely claimed to have secured $100 million to finance marijuana businesses.
The SEC complaint – filed Sept. 30 – said Denver-based Infinex Ventures and its CEO Ronald Salem actually did not have money to invest. The securities agency also claims the company reported more than $500,000 in revenue for the second quarter of 2014, when in reality it didn’t have “any operations, revenue or funding.”
In its complaint, the SEC says that in the time between when Salem took the helm of Infinex and when the firm made the false claims, daily trading volume of the company’s shares grew from 91,000 to 575,000, BusinessDen reported.
The SEC is seeking to bar Salem from becoming an officer of any company that trades on the over-the-counter markets. It’s also looking to fine Salem and Infinex.
In addition, the SEC has prohibited trading of the company’s shares through Oct. 13.
