On August 13, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered final consent judgments against Plandai Biotechnology, Inc., a penny stock company, and Roger Duffield, Plandai's Chairman and CEO, for their roles in an illegal stock offering scheme.

According to the SEC's complaint, Plandai, acting through Duffield, made unregistered offers and sales of its common stock to at least two unaccredited and unsophisticated investors and failed to adequately disclose that proceeds from sales of Plandai's stock were sent to a private company that Duffield owned. The complaint further alleged that Plandai made misleading statements regarding sales of its stock in its annual report and failed to accurately record those transactions in its books and records due to insufficient internal accounting controls.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, defendants consented to the entry of final judgments which permanently enjoin them from violating the registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933, the reporting provisions of Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the books and records provisions of Section 13(b)(2)(A) of the Exchange Act, and the internal accounting controls provisions of Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act. Plandai and Duffield agreed to pay civil penalties of $200,000 and $20,000, respectively. Duffield further agreed to a penny stock bar.

The litigation was conducted by John Bowers and Paul Kisslinger, and supervised by Stephan Schlegelmilch. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Drew Dorman, Jason Litow, and Kevin Gershfeld, and supervised by Yuri Zelinsky. The Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, the Division of Corporation Finance, the Division of Trading and Markets, and the Division of Investment Management assisted with the investigation. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.