The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed an action against Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based Punch TV Studios, Inc. and its founder and chief executive officer, Joseph Collins, alleging that they raised more than $1.2 million from nearly 700 investors through unregistered offerings of Punch TV's common stock.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, from approximately January 2018 until June 2020, the defendants conducted two offerings of Punch TV's common shares that were neither registered with the SEC nor exempt from registration. The complaint alleges that those offerings took place shortly after Punch TV settled to an SEC order that halted a prior securities offering under Regulation A of the Securities Act and temporarily suspended its Regulation A exemption from registration, after Punch TV had repeatedly failed to comply with regulatory requirements. Following the settlement, Collins and Punch TV allegedly continued offering and selling Punch TV shares in violation of the order and without satisfying any registration offering exemptions.

The SEC's complaint, which charges the defendants with violating the securities registration provisions of Section 5(a) and (c) of the Securities Act of 1933, seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement plus interest, civil penalties, and penny stock bars.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Lucee Kirka and Carol Kim, and was supervised by Robert Conrrad of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office. The litigation is being conducted by Amy Longo.