SEC charges fintech investment adviser with violating marketing rule

finextra.com:

In the first case involving the SEC's amended marketing rule, Tian has agreed to pay over $1 million to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the findings.

According to the SEC, between August 2021 and October 2022, Titan, which offers multiple complex strategies to retail investors through its mobile trading app, made misleading statements on its website regarding hypothetical performance, including by advertising “annualised” performance results as high as 2,700% for its crypto strategy.

The regulator says the adverts were misleading because they failed to include material information, for example, that the hypothetical performance projections assumed that the strategy’s performance in its first three weeks would continue for an entire year.

The order also found that Titan made conflicting disclosures to clients about how it custodied crypto assets.

Osman Nawaz, chief of enforcement’s complex financial instruments unit, SEC, says: "The Commission amended the marketing rule to allow for the use of hypothetical performance metrics but only if advisers comply with requirements reasonably designed to prevent fraud.

"Titan’s advertisements and disclosures painted a misleading picture of certain of its strategies for investors.

This action serves as a warning for all advisers to ensure compliance."