Securities & Exchange Commission v. World Capital Market, Inc.

864 F.3d 996, 2017 WL 1055590, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4998
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 21, 2017
DocketNo. 15-55325
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 864 F.3d 996 (Securities & Exchange Commission v. World Capital Market, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Securities & Exchange Commission v. World Capital Market, Inc., 864 F.3d 996, 2017 WL 1055590, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4998 (9th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge:

We address an issue of first impression involving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to disgorge ill-gotten funds from so-called “relief defendants.” Victor Messina and International Market Ventures (“IMV”), contest their liability as relief defendants in the SEC’s enforcement action against Phil Ming Xu and various Xu-related entities for federal securities law violations arising out of a fraudulent investment scheme. The SEC claims that Messina and IMV received $5 million of the tens of millions of dollars Xu unlawfully raised through investor deposits worldwide, but Messina and IMV assert that they received those funds as a loan.

The question presented is whether putative relief defendants may divest a district court of jurisdiction to proceed against them using summary procedures simply by asserting a claim of entitlement to the disputed funds in their possession. Messina and IMV argue'that a facially colorable claim is sufficient to destroy relief defendant jurisdiction, and that to seek disgorgement from them, due process requires the SEC either to join them as party defendants or bring a separate action against them. Messina and IMV also argue that the SEC failed to show that the funds the district court ordered disgorged are proceeds of monies unlawfully collected from United States investors.

[1000]*1000We conclude the district court properly exercised its jurisdiction to determine the legal and factual legitimacy of Messina and IMV’s claim to the $5 million. The court acted correctly under our precedent approving the invocation of relief defendant procedures in SEC enforcement actions and did not clearly err in finding, following a two-day evidentiary hearing, that Messi-na and IMV had no legitimate claim to the funds. The evidence demonstrates that far more than $5 million was raised by Xu and his various entities in the .United. States, and the court correctly concluded that .the funds sought were proceeds of illegal activity and subject to disgorgement. Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion in later ordering disgorgement from Messina and IMV as relief defendants. We have jurisdiction and affirm.

I

. Phil Ming Xu, together with his corporations including World Capital Market, Inc., WCM777 Inc., and WCM777 Ltd. (collectively, “WCM”),- ran a multi-level marketing business ostensibly selling investors membership units providing access to cloud computing services, Xu and WCM promised investors returns of up to 60 percent over a 100-day period. WCM did not provide any actual products or services and had no significant legitimate revenue-generating business operations. Instead, Xu and WCM used money from new investors to pay existing investors and to buy real property and golf courses for Xu and associated third parties. Forensic accountants established that investor funds deposited into various Xu- and WCM-affiliated bank accounts between January 2013 and March 2014 totaled $57,175,385. Xu was the mastermind who controlled the Ponzi scheme.1 He later stipulated to liability for securities law violations, and judgment in favor of the SEC .was ultimately entered against Xu in the amount of $57,260,683.88.

Relief defendant Vincent Messina began working with Xu in June 2013., providing legal advice, regarding tax, corporate, and immigration . matters. During this time, Messina was also general counsel to relief defendant IMV in Washington, D.C. IMV’s President, Gary Messina, is Vincent Messi-na’s nephew.2

• By the fall of 2013, Messina was well aware that Xu and WCM were under investigation by the SEC for securities law violations. Xu instructed WCM’s chief operating officer to keep Messina apprised of the Commission’s investigation “so that Mr. Messina could help Mr. Xu protect his assets.” On December 17, 2013, WCM disbursed $200,000 to Messina, who deposited it into a lawyers trust account at Wells Fargo Bank. Although no contract reflects the purpose of this transfer, according to Messina the funds represented fees for his services related to the'formation of a political action committee (“PAC”) requested by.Xu.3 Messina signed a Consulting Contract with IMV on January 10, 2014, retaining Gary Messina and IMV to assist [1001]*1001with work related to the formation of the PAC. The fees for IMVs services were listed as “Two Hundred Thousand Dollars consisting of two payments: (1) One Hundred Thousand Dollars upon the execution of this agreement and (2) One Hundred Thousand Dollars on June 1st 2014.” No money was transferred to IMV on the date of the execution of the agreement.

By February 2014, Xu’s outside securities law counsel, Scott Warren, was in settlement discussions with the SEC on behalf of Xu and WCM; Messina, learning that Warren had recommended settling with the SEC for $64 million, texted Xu on February 6, 2014, advising him to “drop Scott” because the .proposed settlement sum was “ridiculous.” Messina also wrote:

By the way the- SEC does not have the power to bring a criminal charge. That is the decision of the US Attorney which is entirely separate from the SEC. Perhaps the new counsel can delay the negotiations so that your assets seem less. I have tried to look at your transactions from the standpoint of rearranging them, but have not been able to get the required information.

Xu responded: “Ok;”

Three weeks after this text exchange, Xu transferred $5 million from the bank account of ToPacific Inc. (another Xu entity funded by WCM investor deposits) into Messina’s Bank of America attorney-client trust account. Xu wás ToPacific Inc.’s sole director and the signatory on its bank account. Xu asked Messina to hold the funds for future business endeavors. Messina responded that he would not simply hold the funds, and instead prepared and executed a document Messina characterizes as a loan agreement the day after the transfer which, in its entirety, reads:

This Agreement (“Agreement”) is entered into on February 27, 2014, between Vincent J. Messina and Ming Xu. FOR VALUE RECEIVED, Vincent J. Messina promises to pay to Ming Xu without recourse the sum of Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) with interest computed at five percent (5%) per annum, interest and principal due on January 2, 2019 at his place of business.

That transfer from Xu to Messina was recorded as án “uncategorized expense” in ToPacifie’s books and a payee was not specified, Messina testified before the district court that the loan was in furtherance of previously discussed proposals to set up a fund for future investments in Africa, the “no recourse” language in the agreement meant that he could do whatever he wanted with the money in terms of investment ventures, and he had no personal legal obligation to repay Xu, although he had a “moral obligation” to do so.

Nine days after Xu transferred the $5 million to Messina, Xu sent a text message to him requesting the return of the money to help fund a settlement with the SEC. Messina refused, stating: “The money has already been wired out and is i[n] accordance with the note I signed.” In actuality, as of March 6, 2014—-when Xu requested the recall of funds—Messina still held almost' all of the $5 million in a series of personal and client trust accounts and had transferred only $125,000 to IMV and $100,000 to’ Mohammed el Fatih Saeed, who was in charge of IMVs correspondent office in the United Arab Emirates.

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Bluebook (online)
864 F.3d 996, 2017 WL 1055590, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4998, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/securities-exchange-commission-v-world-capital-market-inc-ca9-2017.