U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25849 / September 25, 2023
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Douglas MacWright and Highlander Capital Management, LLC, No. 2:23-civ-20609 (D.N.J. filed Sept. 25, 2023)
SEC Charges Investment Adviser and His Investment Advisory Firm with Multi-Year Cherry Picking Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled fraud charges against Douglas MacWright and Highlander Capital Management, LLC (“HCM”), an SEC-registered investment adviser, for perpetrating a long-running cherry-picking scheme that reaped more than one million dollars of illicit gains. MacWright and HCM have agreed to pay nearly two million dollars to settle the charges.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in New Jersey, alleges that from April 22, 2015 through June 30, 2022, MacWright, through HCM, used an omnibus or average price account to disproportionately allocate trades that had increased in value during the day they were executed to a preferred account. The complaint also alleges that MacWright disproportionately allocated trades that had decreased in value during the day they were executed to accounts held by other persons and entities, including accounts owned by MacWright, MacWright’s family members, or entities he partially owned.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, MacWright and HCM have consented to the entry of final judgments that would: permanently enjoin them from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”), and permanently enjoin HCM from violating, and MacWright from aiding and abetting violations of, Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7 thereunder; order MacWright to pay $1,118,718 in disgorgement, $253,903 in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of $400,000; and order HCM to pay a civil penalty of $150,000. The settlements are subject to court approval.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit members Jeffrey E. Oraker and John Rymas, with assistance from Stuart Jackson and Irina Murtazashvili of the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis and Kerry Matticks, Zachary Carlyle, and Gregory Kasper of the Denver Regional Office. The case was supervised by Danielle R. Voorhees and Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the Market Abuse Unit.