FINbRA announced that it has fined two FINRA-registered funding portals a combined $1.75 million for failing to comply with securities laws and rules designed to protect crowdfunding investors. StartEngine matter, FINRA found that at various points between November 2016 and January 2018, StartEngine included issuer communications on its funding portal website that it knew or had reason to know were false or misleading; posted its own inaccurate counts of the number of investors in the offerings on its portal; and failed to reasonably supervise potentially misleading issuer-prepared content.
For example, one issuer, whose product was a home robot, exaggerated the robot's level of functionality in a demonstration video posted on the StartEngine website. The video depicted the robot independently performing tasks such as waking sleeping family members, teaching a child piano and art, projecting a recipe onto a cutting board, patrolling a home for intruders, adjusting a thermostat and playing peek-a-boo with a child. During the offering, StartEngine received information that caused it to know or had reason to know that these claims were exaggerated and misleading, but it failed to correct them. Although a disclaimer on the offering page noted that the robot was a work-in-progress, it was insufficient to remediate the misleading content.
StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc. is focused on developing a startup financing model, which helps both accredited and non-accredited investors to invest in private companies on a public platform. The Company operates as a technology platform connecting issuers and investors, as a broker-dealer and as a Regulation Crowdfunding funding portal. Its offerings include Regulation A Offerings, Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings and Rule 506(c) Offerings. Its products and services include StartEngine OWNers Bonus, StartEngine Secure, StartEngine Premium, StartEngine Primary, StartEngine Secondary, StartEngine Assets and StartEngine Private. StartEngine Private provides accredited investors the opportunity to purchase membership interests in funds (SE Funds) which own shares of venture-capital backed, late-stage private companies. StartEngine Secure offers transfer agent services, which include tracking each investorâs account information and the amount of securities purchased and date purchased.