On August 19, 2024, GHS Investments, LLC (“GHS”) and its owners, Mark Grober, Sarfraz Hajee and Matthew Schissler, came to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“), agreeing to pay disgorgement and fines and surrender remaining notes, warrants and stock.
According to the SEC, from 2017 through 2022 (the “relevant period”), GHS operated as an unregistered securities dealer and sold billions of shares of stock from at least 23 issuers into the public market and generated millions of dollars in profits for its own account.
During the relevant period, GHS engaged in the regular business of acquiring convertible, variable rate notes from penny stock securities issuers, converting the notes into stock at a substantial discount from the prevailing market price, and selling the resulting newly issued shares of the issuers’ stock into the public market to obtain profits from the difference between the discounted share price it received and the prevailing market price of the stock.
GHS will pay $2,030,806 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest of $221,458.43, and a civil penalty of $173,080.62.
The SEC didn’t include a list of issuers in which GHS still holds notes, warrants and shares, but a search for “GHS Investments” on Edgar shows that GHS has done toxic financings with dozens of issuers through the years.