SEC Obtains Emergency Relief in Case Charging Claims Aggregator and Principals with Multi-Million Dollar Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it charged a New Jersey "claims aggregator" – a firm that submits claims on behalf of its clients to administrators tasked with returning settlement funds to harmed investors – and its three principals with defrauding distribution funds established to return money to securities fraud victims in a multi-year scheme that yielded millions of dollars. The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges that Joseph Cammarata, Erik Cohen, and David Punturieri, and two entities that they control, AlphaPlus Portfolio Recovery Corp. and Alpha Plus Recovery LLC (collectively AlphaPlus), stole at least $40 million from approximately 400 distribution funds, including more than $3 million from settlement funds arising from SEC enforcement actions.