SHEP Technologies

LOM group agrees to $2.5 m in financial penalties and trading bans to settle SEC action

October 16, 2010

In a final judgment that was approved by a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday, Lines Overseas Management companies in Bermuda, Bahamas and Cayman Islands and the group's two controlling individuals during the relevant period agreed to pay $2.53 million

SEC v. Lines Overseas Management case sent to Magistrate Judge for settlement

July 6, 2010

The fraud complaint brought by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Bermuda based offshore financial services group Lines Overseas Management might be about to settle. On July 2, 2010, the federal court judge overseeing the action at the

Insider Talking: May 12, 2010

May 12, 2010

Bermuda resident Eric Collins seemingly rues the day he agreed to serve as a director of Consensus Investments Ltd., which the SEC alleges was used to conceal insider trading in penny stock SHEP Technologies by Lines Overseas Management, Scott Lines,

Targets of alleged LOM fraud derided as “lambs” & “sheep” in recorded call, says SEC

March 10, 2010

A participant in an alleged securities fraud involving Bermuda based Lines Overseas Management described potential victims - who included LOM's own clients - as "poor lambs" and "sheep", claims the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The derogatory terms were

‘SEC v. Lines Overseas Management’ fraud trial set for mid-February

January 12, 2010

A jury trial in a fraud action by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Bermuda based financial services group Lines Overseas Management could take place as early as next month in Manhattan.In a scheduling order issued on December

Ex-LOM president Brian Lines loses attempt to keep recording from SEC

November 19, 2009

Former Lines Overseas Management president Brian Lines has lost an attempt to avoid giving the United States Securities and Exchange Commission a tape recording of a telephone conversation he had nearly seven years ago with SEC attorneys who were looking

SEC files securities fraud complaint against Lines Overseas Management

December 20, 2007

Following a long regulatory investigation that it went to extraordinary lengths to block through the courts, offshore financial services group Lines Overseas Management has been charged with securities fraud in a civil complaint that was filed yesterday by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The defendants include LOM companies in Bermuda, where the group is headquartered; the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, as well as LOM's President and CEO, Scott Lines, and his brother, Brian Lines, who resigned as LOM's president, effective July 1, 2005, as a result of the SEC investigation. The group's chairman, Brian and Scott's father Donald Lines, is not a defendant.

Lines Overseas Management appeals another adverse ruling in SEC subpoena case

April 5, 2007

A marathon attempt by Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, to block an SEC fraud investigation is entering a new phase of appeal in the United States.In a ‘Final Order' on February 21, 2007, U. S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts, sitting at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, overruled the objections filed more than two years ago by LOM and Lines to U. S. Magistrate Alan Kay's order on January 7, 2005 that they comply with subpoenas requiring testimony and the production of documents for an investigation into alleged securities fraud involving shares issued by Sedona Software Solutions Inc. and SHEP Technologies Inc., both of Vancouver, Canada.However, in keeping with their practice of challenging every decision that goes against them, LOM and Lines filed a notice on March 27, 2007 that they are appealing the ‘Final Order' to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Bermuda Court of Appeal stymies U. S. securities fraud investigation

April 6, 2006

The former president of Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. appears to have won his battle to keep potentially incriminating telephone recordings out of the hands of the SEC in the United States.In a ruling on March 23, 2006, Bermuda Court of Appeal allowed Brian Lines' appeal against a decision by Bermuda Supreme Court that LOM must disclose “recordings, transcripts, summaries or excerpts” of telephone conversations made on Lines' extension while he worked for LOM. Justices Zacca, Nazareth, and Sir Murray Stuart-Smith also upheld the lower court's ruling that the SEC was not entitled to any “recordings, transcripts, summaries or excerpts of interviews undertaken” as part of an investigation into LOM by its local regulator, the Bermuda Monetary Authority. The court granted Lines an injunction restraining LOM and its subsidiary, LOM Securities (Bermuda) Ltd., from disclosing material regarding both of these matters to the SEC.

LOM says it has started turning over client records to SEC

February 23, 2006

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. claims to have started turning over client records to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission after losing yet another court ruling. In a filing at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia on February 21, 2006, LOM stated that it “has begun producing documents to the SEC” pursuant to four SEC administrative subpoenas that were served on its Managing Director, Scott Lines, as long ago as April, 2004.

Offshore broker can turn over client records to SEC, rules Bermuda court

February 4, 2006

In a landmark ruling, Bermuda Supreme Court has determined that offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management can disclose “confidential” client records and recordings of telephone conversations to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the SEC is not entitled to material that is subject to attorney-client privilege or concerns interviews with former LOM president Brian Lines that were conducted by the Bermuda Monetary Authority after the BMA had given assurances of confidentiality.

SEC accuses LOM chairman Donald Lines of lying

January 25, 2006

Prominent offshore businessman Donald Lines has been branded a liar by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Lines, the 73-year-old Chairman and President of Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Limited, is adamant that he was not served with a securities-fraud related subpoena while he was in the U. S. in November, 2005 for emergency heart surgery. After the SEC first made the allegation in a filing at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia in late December, LOM denied it in a court filing of its own and Donald Lines, a former CEO of the Bank of Bermuda, even went so far as to take out a full-page advertisement in the Bermuda Sun newspaper in which he claimed: “I have never been served a subpoena by the SEC”, adding that: “There has been no contact from the SEC to even notify me that they ever intended to serve any subpoenas or that they, however incorrectly, believed they had served me.”

LOM secures stay of order requiring compliance with SEC subpoenas

January 17, 2006

Bermuda-based stockbroker Lines Overseas Management Limited has secured more time in its increasingly desperate battle to avoid co-operating with securities fraud investigations being conducted by the SEC. In an order on January 13, 2006, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit temporarily stayed a lower court's order that LOM and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, comply with four SEC administrative subpoenas by January 17. The ruling was in response to an emergency motion for a stay, pending an appeal, filed that same day by LOM and Lines.

LOM asks Bermuda court to rule on client confidentiality

January 11, 2006

A hearing is scheduled to take place at Bermuda Supreme Court on Friday to determine whether offshore stockbroker Lines Overseas Management Ltd. is allowed to release client records to the SEC in the United States. The expedited hearing was requested by the LOM group on January 9, 2006 in what appears to be a last-ditch attempt to avoid complying with SEC enforcement subpoenas that were served on it as long as 22 months ago concerning investigations into alleged securities fraud involving shares issued by Sedona Software Solutions Inc. and SHEP Technologies Inc., both of Vancouver, Canada, and HiEnergy Technologies Inc., of Irvine, California.

LOM ordered to comply with SEC subpoenas by Jan. 17

January 3, 2006

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been given until January 17, 2006 to comply with four administrative subpoenas concerning securities fraud investigations by the SEC. The deadline for the provision of testimony and documents was set by U. S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts, sitting at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on December 30, 2005 when he turned down an application that was filed almost 12 months by LOM and Lines to stay a Magistrate Judge's ruling that it must comply with the subpoenas.

LOM inquiry causes newsletter writer to flee U. S., says SEC

April 15, 2005

A newsletter writer has "fled" the United States to avoid being questioned by the SEC about alleged securities fraud by offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management, it has been claimed.The allegation was among new details that were released by the SEC in a filing on March 31, 2005 at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where the Commission is seeking to enforce four subpoenas served on LOM and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, last year concerning two separate investigations into the trading of shares issued by Sedona Software Solutions Inc. and SHEP Technologies Inc., both of Vancouver, Canada, and HiEnergy Technologies Inc., of Irvine, California.

LOM seeks stay of order that they comply with SEC subpoenas

January 31, 2005

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have applied for a stay - pending an appeal - of a court order requiring them to turn over information to the SEC for use in two investigations into alleged securities fraud. In a joint motion to the U. S. District Court for the District of Maryland, LOM and Lines, claim that, until a final order is rendered, they "cannot lawfully be required to comply" with four SEC subpoenas and, therefore, the effect of a January 7, 2005 ruling by Magistrate Judge Alan Kay ordering them to comply should be stayed until it becomes final.

LOM and Scott Lines ordered to comply with SEC subpoenas

January 7, 2005

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been ordered by a U. S. court to comply with four subpoenas served on them last April by the SEC. The order was issued by Magistrate Judge Alan Kay at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia on January 7, 2005. It is likely that LOM, at least, will appeal the decision, as the firm has previously indicated it would do if the ruling went against it.

SEC says LOM at epicenter of suspected fraud schemes

December 31, 2004

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and its two most senior officers "have been at the epicenter of at least two suspected fraudulent schemes", according to the U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Furthermore, LOM and brothers Scott and Brian Lines have done "everything possible to keep the SEC from getting to the bottom of it", claimed SEC attorney Michael Lowman at a U. S. court hearing.

Judge reserves judgment after LOM hearing

December 17, 2004

A United States court has reserved judgment on whether an offshore investment firm and its boss must comply with four subpoenas served on them by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay did not issue a ruling from the bench at the end of a two-hour hearing on December 10, 2004 at the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as the SEC had hoped.

PwC ‘unable to express an opinion’ on LOM audit, cites lack of disclosure

September 30, 2004

Investment group Lines Overseas Management, which claims to have nearly $1 billion of assets under administration, is refusing to provide information about allegedly illegal trading activities to its own auditor, as well as the Bermuda Monetary Authority and the SEC

SEC v. LOM hearing postponed by ten days

September 15, 2004

A court hearing in the United States concerning Bermuda based investment firm Lines Overseas Management and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, has been put back by ten days.Following a joint request by all parties, LOM and Lines must now appear

LOM and Scott Lines ordered to appear before US court

August 19, 2004

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been ordered to appear before a United States court as part of a securities fraud investigation.The U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order on August 17, 2004 that they must attend a hearing that is scheduled to start at 9.45 a.m. on October 4.

LOM clears itself of wrongdoing

June 19, 2004

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. has denied allegations of securities fraud made against it by the SEC but is still refusing to co-operate with the regulator's investigations. LOM has reiterated its stance that its affairs are governed by the laws of Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, where it has offices, and not the USA and Canada, where it makes much of its revenue.

SEC investigates LOM for alleged securities fraud

June 11, 2004

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its principal officers, Scott and Brian Lines, are being investigated for alleged securities fraud in the United States. It has been alleged that the Lines brothers and LOM customers profited by more than $6.4 million from fraud and market manipulation and that the firm caused false statements to be filed with the SEC and altered its internal records to impede an investigation.