Cantor Fitzgerald LP agreed to pay $6.75 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange allegations that it misled investors in two blank-check firms before their stock-market debuts.
The firm, led by Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick, controlled two special purpose acquisition companies in 2020 and 2021 that raised $750 million. The SPACs claimed in regulatory filings that they hadn’t had substantive talks with potential merger targets, the agency said in a statement on Thursday. In reality, the entities had already started negotiations with a small group of candidates, it said.
“This enforcement action reflects the straightforward proposition that any disclosures about substantive discussions with potential targets must be materially accurate,” Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the regulator’s enforcement division, said in the statement.
The firm settled without admitting to or denying the allegations. Lutnick, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Department of Commerce, isn’t a defendant in the civil case.
“No investor was ever harmed by the alleged issues described in the order,” Cantor said in a statement. “We are pleased to have concluded this matter by mutual agreement with the SEC.”
The Cantor-led SPACs took smart-glassmaker View Inc. and satellite company Satellogic Inc. public.
SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, one of the commission’s two Republicans, dissented from the enforcement action, saying the alleged misstatements and omissions were not material, nor were investors financially harmed. He said he also didn’t support the SEC’s similar settlement with Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check firm that took Trump’s social media company public. The firm in 2023 agreed to pay the SEC $18 million to settle allegations about misleading statements.
