SEC slaps Perceptive Advisors with $1.5 million penalty over SPACs
The regulator says the New York-based firm failed to disclose conflicts of interest.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged New York-based investment adviser Perceptive Advisors with failing to disclose conflicts of interest regarding its employees’ ownership of sponsors of special purpose acquisition companies in which the firm advised its clients to invest.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Perceptive agreed to a cease-and-desist order, a censure and a $1.5 million penalty to settle the charges.
According to the SEC’s order, Perceptive formed multiple SPACs in 2020 whose sponsors were owned both by Perceptive personnel and by a private fund that Perceptive advised. The Perceptive personnel were entitled to a portion of the compensation the SPAC sponsors received upon completion of the SPACs’ business combinations.
The SEC’s order said that Perceptive repeatedly invested assets of a private fund it advised in certain transactions that helped complete the SPACs’ business combinations and did not disclose these conflicts in a timely manner.
[More: Gensler targets SPAC disclosures]
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