Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, Friedland and Global agreed to disgorge nearly $2.1 million plus prejudgment interest, and Intiva agreed to disgorge $20,000. Friedland also agreed to pay a $2 million penalty. All defendants consented to bars prohibiting them from participating in penny stock offerings.
Friedland, who did frequent media interviews to promote the OWC stock , never mentioned that OWC paid him to promote its stock to investors for the company, giving the false impression that he was only an "early-stage" investor in OWC and not the company’s paid promoter, the SEC said.
At no point during a July 8 "Wall Street Raw" interview did Friedland disclose that he had directly or indirectly sold millions of shares of OWC stock acquired through Global only a few months earlier nor that he was in the process of liquidating all of Intiva’s OWC stock as well, the agency said in its complaint.
Reasonable investors would have considered it important to their investment decisions to know that Friedland had been paid millions of shares of stock to promote OWC’s stock, the SEC said.
“Indeed, actual OWC investors contacted by the SEC have stated that they purchased stock, and later held onto and did not sell their shares, based in whole or in part on Friedland’s promotional efforts and recommendations," the SEC said. "Such investors have stated that knowing Friedland had been paid millions of shares of stock to promote OWC would have been important to their investment decisions."