Litigation Release No. 24578 / August 29, 2019
U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. William Hutchinson a/k/a William Cluxton, No. 8:19-cv-02166 (M.D. Fla. filed August 29, 2019)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged William Hutchinson (a.k.a. William Cluxton), of Sarasota, Florida for fraudulently selling securities.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that between March and December 2018, Hutchinson raised at least $35,000 from at least four investors through a fraudulent securities offering in the stock of Symulto Corporation, a company he formed in 2016. According to the complaint, Hutchinson made a number of material misrepresentations on Symulto’s website and in offering documents, including that Symulto was in the business of developing stored-value debit card services and software for international gaming and sports books; had operations all over the world; had sales of over $251 million and net income of over $86 million; and had been audited by a large, multi-national accounting firm. As alleged, all of these statements were false. Symulto never had any business operations, assets or income and never was audited. According to the complaint, Hutchinson used a significant portion of the investor funds to pay for personal expenses.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Tampa, Florida, charges Hutchinson with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and seeks a permanent injunction and monetary relief.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Richard G. Stoltz and Rebecca Hollenbeck and was supervised by Anne C. McKinley of the Chicago Regional Office. The litigation will be led by John E. Birkenheier, Richard G. Stoltz and Anne C. McKinley.