Icahn, firm settle US SEC charges over alleged disclosure failures (updated)

Icahn Enterprises LP

19/08/2024 14:36

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       Aug 19 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn and
his firm Icahn Enterprises LP (IEP)  IEP.O  have settled charges
for failing to disclose pledges of the company's securities as
collateral for billions of dollars in personal loans, U.S.
regulators said on Monday.
    The firm and Icahn agreed to pay $1.5 million and $500,000
in civil penalties, respectively, to settle the charges, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.
    Starting in 2018, Icahn pledged between 51% to 82% of the
IEP's outstanding securities as collateral to secure billions
dollars in personal margin loans from multiple lenders but did
not disclose this until February 2022, according to the SEC.
        Icahn also failed to amend securities filings describing
personal loans dating back as far as 2005, the agency said in a
statement.
  
        "The federal securities laws imposed independent
disclosure obligations on both Icahn and IEP. These disclosures
would have revealed that Icahn pledged over half of IEP’s
outstanding shares at any given time," Osman Nawaz, head of the
Complex Financial Instruments Unit in the SEC's Enforcement
Division, said the statement.
  
        This deprived investors of information they needed, he
added.
  
        Representatives for IEP did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. The SEC said Icahn and IEP had settled
without admitting or denying the allegations and agreed to cease
and desist from future violations.
  

 (Reporting by Ismail Shakil; editing by Susan Heavey and Nick
Zieminski)
 ((ismail.shakil@tr.com;))