Akazoo, a music streaming subscription company based in Greece, reached a $38.8 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars related to a 2019 special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.
The SEC first filed a lawsuit against Akazoo in September 2020 alleging securities fraud, one year after the company went public through its SPAC merger with Modern Media Acquisition Corp. The agency’s probe followed a short-seller report alleging fraud in April 2020, prompting Akazoo’s board to launch an internal investigation.
