SEC Charges Perceptive Advisors for Failing to Disclose SPAC-Related Conflicts of Interest

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged New York-based investment adviser Perceptive Advisors LLC with failing to disclose conflicts of interest regarding its personnel’s ownership of sponsors of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) into which Perceptive advised its clients to invest. According to the SEC’s order, in 2020, Perceptive formed multiple SPACs whose sponsors were owned both by Perceptive personnel and by a private fund that Perceptive advised. The Perceptive personnel were entitled to a portion of the compensation the SPAC sponsors received upon completion of the SPACs’ business combinations. The SEC’s order finds that Perceptive repeatedly invested assets of a private fund it advised in certain transactions that helped complete the SPACs’ business combinations and did not timely disclose these conflicts.