I always try to warn people not to get themselves thrown in prison by obstructing justice in SEC investigations. No really, I do! As I have said here many times in one form or another,

"SEC enforcement actions are civil matters, meaning no matter how badly a defendant may lose the case he or she isn't going to prison. However, there is a one easy way to parlay this situation into jail time, and that is by perjuring yourself in sworn testimony or, similarly, by obstructing justice by making false statements to the SEC during its investigation."

The latest person not to heed my advice is one Roger S. Bliss, a former Apple stock day-trader who as of this week has now been sentenced to spend "a year and a day" in federal prison for obstructing the SEC's case against him. As I discussed here in September 2015, Bliss took the bleak state of affairs he was faced with when the SEC filed a civil case against him on February 11, 2015 and made things exponentially worse for himself.

According to the SEC, Bliss was "sentenced to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in connection with an asset freeze the Commission obtained against him in federal court." Specifically, Bliss concealed his ownership of a catamaran sailboat and secretly transferred possession to his brother-in-law, Kevin Fortney. He and Fortney also filed sworn declarations that the sailboat was owned by the brother-in-law and not by Bliss, the SEC stated.

In short, sometimes you need to simply "take the L" in the SEC's case against you and keep yourself out of prison.

Topics