Live Ventures Incorporated Charged by SEC | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a publicly traded Las Vegas-based holding company, its CEO, its CFO, an LLC controlled by the CEO, and another Nevada-based public company with multiple financial, disclosure, and reporting violations related to inflated income and earnings per share, stock promotion and secret trading, and undisclosed executive compensation.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Las Vegas-based Live Ventures Incorporated and its CEO, Jon Isaac, recorded income from a backdated contract to boost Live Ventures’ pre-tax income for fiscal year 2016 by 20%. Live Ventures and Isaac also allegedly overstated earnings per share by 40% by improperly understating Live Ventures’ outstanding share count. The complaint alleges that in addition to disclosing falsified financial results, Isaac hired a stock promoter to boost interest in Live Ventures. As alleged, the financial manipulation and stock promotion caused Live Ventures’ share price to spike. Isaac allegedly profited by secretly selling Live Ventures shares in a nominee account that he controlled in the name of Kingston Diversified Holdings.
The complaint also alleges that Live Ventures misrepresented the date on which it had acquired a new subsidiary from Appliance Recycling Centers of America, Inc. (ARCA, currently known as JanOne Inc.), enabling Live Ventures to report a positive net income for its first quarter of 2018, which otherwise would have been an unprofitable quarter. According to the complaint, Isaac and Virland A. Johnson, who held the position of CFO at both Live Ventures and ARCA, engaged in a scheme to misrepresent the effective acquisition date, and lied to Live Ventures’ auditors about the acquisition date to ensure Live Ventures could report positive net income. The complaint further alleges that Isaac underreported his executive compensation in Live Ventures’ proxy statements. As alleged, for the fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018, Live Ventures disclosed that Isaac received, in aggregate, $162,000 of additional compensation, even though he had received approximately $315,000 during that period.
Investors with Live Ventures May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in with Live Ventures, Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. may help you. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a St. Petersburg, FL law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, has recovered more than $200 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors.
All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis by Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA. Kalju Nekvasil, Esq. has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years.
There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
If you incurred investment losses with Live Ventures and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.