SEC Charges Cantor Fitzgerald Over Misleading SPAC Disclosures

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. with causing two special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) that it controlled to make misleading statements to investors ahead of their initial public offerings (IPOs). Cantor Fitzgerald has agreed to pay a $6.75 million civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. A SPAC is an entity with no underlying business operations that is formed to raise money through an IPO so it can then identify and acquire an operating business. According to the SEC’s Order, in 2020 and 2021, a team of Cantor Fitzgerald executives managed and controlled two SPACs – CF Finance Acquisition Corp. II and CF Acquisition Corp. V – which raised $750 million from investors through IPOs ahead of the SPACs’ eventual mergers with View, Inc.