Perceptive Advisors fined $1.5M for SPACs conflicts, disclosure violations

Perceptive Advisors agreed to pay $1.5 million for allegedly steering clients toward special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) its investment advisers had financial interests in and failing to disclose those conflicts in a timely fashion.

Perceptive agreed to be censured and cease and desist from future violations of investment and securities laws, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Tuesday. The firm neither admitted nor denied the agency’s findings.

In 2020, Perceptive created several SPACs incorporated in the Cayman Islands whose sponsor ownership and management linked back to certain Perceptive employees and a life sciences fund owned by the firm, the SEC detailed in its order. The company repeatedly invested the assets of the life sciences fund in transactions involving the SPACs.

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