On January 3, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against defendant Melville Peter ten Cate, whom the SEC previously charged with fraud for orchestrating a phony offer to purchase a major U.S. aircraft, defense, and industrial company.

The SEC's complaint was filed on April 5, 2022. The complaint alleged that ten Cate and his now-defunct private company, Xcalibur Aerospace, Ltd., placed an advertisement in The New York Times announcing a proposed plan to purchase all existing stock of Textron, Inc., at a 56% premium over the stock's previous closing price. The announcement allegedly contained a number of false and misleading statements about Xcalibur's size and financial condition and failed to disclose that ten Cate and entities he controlled had been the subject of multiple bankruptcy and default judgments.

Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, Ten Cate consented to entry of a final judgment permanently enjoining him from violations of the antifraud provisions of Sections 10(b) and 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; imposing a permanent conduct-based injunction that will prevent him from, among other things, participating in any securities offerings; permanently barring him from acting as an officer or director of a public company; and ordering him to pay a civil penalty of $500,000. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York previously announced criminal charges against ten Cate.

The investigation was conducted by Edward Reilly and Brian Vann and supervised by Amy Friedman and Carolyn Welshhans. The litigation was conducted by Duane Thompson and supervised by James Carlson. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and U.S. Department of Homeland Security