Reuters – Investment adviser MAG Capital and its owner settled U.S. regulators’ claims that it took warrants from three hedge funds it advised without compensating them, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.

The Los Angeles-based investment adviser and owner David Firestone, without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, will pay $100,000 and $50,000, respectively, to settle the SEC’s complaint.

On 44 separate occasions, between 2003 and 2006, MAG took warrants from its clients without compensating their funds for them, the SEC said.

According to the SEC, MAG’s hedge fund clients made investments in so-called private investment in public equity (PIPE) transactions.

The PIPE transactions included warrants and other securities. The hedge funds paid for the warrants as part of the bundle of securities sold by the issuers in the transaction.

However, MAG took a portion of the warrants in each transaction and did not compensate the hedge funds for the warrants it took, the SEC alleged.

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Tags: allegations, david firestone, investment-adviser, investments, issuers, occasions, private investment, public equity, regulators, reuters, securities-and-exchange, securities-and-exchange-commission, warrants