Crowdcheck Blog

Regulation A is an exemption from registration of securities under the Securities Act of 1933. At the same time, it is a public offering of securities. This puts Reg A in an odd place when it comes to SEC review. For the most part, the operating companies utilizing Reg A are early stage companies. This is not entirely what the SEC envisioned when adopting its amended Reg A Rules. In that release, the SEC believed most use would come from companies opting for Reg A rather than a traditional IPO. Other observers took the view that Reg A would act as a later stage, pre-IPO round, allowing an exit opportunity for some venture investors. Instead, Reg A offerings by…

Since our last update in September 2017, we have learned a lot about the process for companies to register as issuer-dealers in certain states when making offers and sales under Regulation A without a broker-dealer. As a reminder, while states are preempted from requiring qualification or registration of offerings of securities under Tier 2 of Regulation A, states may require registration of the persons who will be selling those securities. Most states do not have such requirements, but some do. Our memo summarizes the requirements and includes important considerations for companies, especially those based in Florida, or that are selling into Florida or Arizona…

Deviating from its standard rulemaking procedures, the SEC issued final rules on December 19, 2018 to expand the eligibility requirements under Regulation A to include Exchange Act Reporting companies. This action was required by Congress as part of the “Economic Growth Act” that became law in May 2018. The SEC determined that it had little discretion when amending Regulation A in response to the Congressional directive, and went ahead and issued a final rule rather than a proposed rule for comment. This change could prove to be significant for small, Exchange Act reporting companies that may not be eligible to register an offering on Form S-3. Additionally,…

On December 7, 2018, FINRA released its 2018 Report on Examination Findings. This is the second annual report FINRA has released, and it provides a wealth of information for compliance officers. FINRA notes that it is not an exhaustive review of deficiencies exhibited by broker-dealers, but it does highlight those deficiencies that were significant and frequent. While the report focuses on broker-dealer operations, funding portals should take note as well, as FINRA has imputed certain broker-dealer supervisory and issuer review practices to funding portals under FINRA Funding Portal Rule 200. The leading issue identified by FINRA was broker-dealers having…

Often, companies are started with just an idea. A founder may decide to quickly form a limited liability company to help protect assets, or operate as a sole proprietor for a period of time. Prior to taking on funds from outside investors, that company may decide to form a corporation. For companies that follow that early stage cycle, the financial statements to be included in a Reg CF filing may not just be the financials of the corporation. If the previous entity or sole proprietorship was operating in the period required to be covered by GAAP financials, those activities must be represented in the financial statements as well. In Reg CF, the SEC provides…

With the approval by the House of Representatives of the Senate version of S. 2155, a number of financial regulatory reform measures were sent to the President’s desk for signature and became law on May 24. While some of these measures, especially those related to banking, are more controversial, there are a few provisions related to US securities law that have received broad support. These changes include allowing issuers to better use smaller national stock exchanges, increasing the Investment Company Act exemption threshold for venture capital funds, increasing the annual limit for exempt issuances for employee stock plans, and allowing Exchange Act…

As previously identified in a CrowdCheck investor alert here, a significant number of companies that have raised funds under Regulation Crowdfunding are no longer in business. That is to be expected. Early stage companies have a high rate of failure, and investors should understand that risk before investing. It is a general principle that a business failure itself is not fraud. Maybe revenues never grew the way the company thought. Perhaps larger competitors entered the space and out-competed the company. Maybe the company could not effectively scale its operations to bring down its cost of revenue. These, and an almost infinite variety of factors, can lead to…

While Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act and Reg CF preempt state regulation of offerings under Reg CF, states are still permitted to require notice filings be made. For Reg CF, rather than all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and other territories being able to require notice filings, only the state of the principal place of business of the company, and the state in which more than 50% of the securities are sold in the offering (if any) may require notice filings. Based on the manner most state securities laws are written, many states must enact specific rules to require notice filings. Some state laws provide for notice filing requirements without…

Following the release of the “Simple Agreement for Future Tokens” or “SAFT” documentation by Protocol Labs and Cooley LLP, the possibility of doing blockchain token sales has been expanded to companies at even earlier stages of development. When selling a token, companies needed to have more architecture developed with respect to their platforms so that they could issue tokens with rights that corresponded to the operations of those platforms. With the SAFT, those companies can sell securities to investors on the promise that tokens will become available to those investors when the platform is operational and the token rights are known. While the SAFT is not…

Every company offering securities to investors under Regulation Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) is required to provide financial statements that are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. For offerings seeking over $107,000, those financial statements are required to be reviewed by an independent public accountant (second helpings under Reg CF may require financial statements audited by an independent public accountant for raises of more than $535,000 in the prior 12 months). While most companies have correctly complied with the review or audit requirement, some companies have failed to engage accountants that are actually independent,…