- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Kyle Brasseur2023-10-24T22:21:00
BlackRock Advisors agreed to pay $2.5 million as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) addressing allegations the firm inaccurately described investments a fund it advised made in a now-defunct film production company.
BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT) made significant investments in Aviron Group, which it described in reports to the SEC as a “diversified financial services” firm, according to the agency’s press release Tuesday. But Aviron’s only line of business was developing plans for distributing films and funding the associated distribution costs, making the description provided by BlackRock appear inaccurate.
BlackRock said it discovered the reporting errors in connection with an internal review it undertook after uncovering fraud perpetrated by Aviron and its principal against the BIT. The founder of Aviron was sentenced to more than three years in prison in October 2022 for misusing Covid-19 relief loans and separately charged by the SEC for misappropriating BIT funds.
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