U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 23825 / May 5, 2017
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Andrew T.E. Coldicutt, et al., 17-CV-3401 (C.D. Cal. filed May 4, 2017)
SEC Files Subpoena Enforcement Against Attorney for Failure to Provide Documents
The Securities and Exchange Commission, on May 4, 2017, filed a subpoena enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Andrew T.E. Coldicutt and the Law Offices of Andrew Coldicutt.
According to the SEC's application and supporting papers, the SEC is investigating, among other things, whether Coldicutt, or others associated with various publicly traded companies, may have engaged in antifraud and securities registration violations by participating in filing registration statements which contain false information about those companies' control persons or promoters. The SEC's court filings also state that Coldicutt is the author of attorney opinion letters that are potentially false and misleading and that may be part of unregistered distributions of securities.
As part of its investigation, the SEC staff served Coldicutt and his law firm with subpoenas requiring the production of documents. According SEC's application, Coldicutt and his law firm have failed either to produce all responsive documents or provide sufficient information to support withholding various documents on the basis of a legal privilege. The SEC's application seeks an order from the court compelling Coldicutt and the law firm to provide additional information to support their refusal to produce certain documents on the basis of attorney-client privilege.
The SEC is continuing its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that anyone has violated the securities laws.