A privately held family company and its CEO, who announced a $10 billion bid to buy U.S. Steel without having the cash on hand, will pay $600,000 in penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for making materially false statements.

Pennsylvania-based Esmark will pay a $500,000 fine while CEO James Bouchard will pay $100,000 for falsely claiming the company had $10 billion available to close the deal.

Aaron Nicodemus is the Editor-in-Chief of Compliance Week. He previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Law and as business editor at the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass. Email: aaron.nicodemus@complianceweek.com LinkedIn:...