Stock Research Firm and Co-Founders Charged With Deceiving Investors in Supposedly Unbiased Reports

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a stock research firm and its co-founders with defrauding investors by issuing reports purportedly based on “unbiased” and “not paid for” research when in reality they received thousands of dollars from issuers as a condition to providing each report. According to the SEC’s complaint, SeeThruEquity LLC and brothers Ajay and Amit Tandon camouflaged the payments by inviting companies to make a “presentation” at an investor conference in order to receive a research report for free. SeeThru and the Tandons allegedly collected up to several thousand dollars in conference presentation fees per company, and the issuers regularly had input into the substance of the supposedly unbiased research reports, even including the price targets at times.