Wilson J. Rondini, III; Falcon Capital Partners Ltd.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26077 / August 14, 2024

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Wilson J. Rondini, III and Falcon Capital Partners Limited, No. 23-cv-81285-DMM (S.D. Fla. filed Sept. 18, 2023)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Florida Resident and the Business He Operated Charged with Acting as Unregistered Broker-Dealers

On August 13, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against defendants Wilson J. Rondini, III and Falcon Capital Partners Limited, whom the SEC previously charged with acting as unregistered broker-dealers.  The judgment orders, among other things, that Rondini and Falcon Capital Partners Limited pay $5,750,000 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

The SEC’s complaint was filed on September 18, 2023 in federal district court in Miami, Florida, and amended on December 8, 2023.  The amended complaint alleged that, from at least 2018 through the end of 2022, Rondini, Falcon Capital Partners Limited, and Falcon Capital LLP acted as brokers and dealers, engaged in the business of both effecting transactions in securities for the accounts of others and buying and selling securities for their own accounts.  According to the amended complaint, however, at no time during the relevant period did Rondini, Falcon Capital Partners Limited, or Falcon Capital LLP register as a broker-dealer with the Commission or associate with a broker-dealer registered with the Commission, as required by the federal securities laws.

Rondini and Falcon Capital Partners Limited, without admitting or denying the allegations in the amended complaint, consented to entry of a final judgment permanently enjoining them from acting as unregistered brokers or unregistered dealers; ordering them to pay, on a joint-and-several basis, disgorgement of $5,220,000, prejudgment interest thereon of $283,597, and a civil penalty of $246,403, for a total of $5,750,000; and barring them from participating in an offering of penny stock for three years. The SEC’s claims against a third entity, Falcon Capital LLP, were voluntarily dismissed, as Falcon Capital LLP is now defunct.

The SEC’s case was handled by Jonathan Menitove, Richard Harper, Jeffrey Cook, Alexandra Lavin, Ryan Murphy, and Celia Moore of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office.