BlackRock has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine to end the legal proceedings.
The SEC also claimed that BlackRock exaggerated the interest rate that Aviron was receiving.
The U.S SEC filed charges against BlackRock Advisors, LLC today for failing to provide information about investments that make up a substantial component of a publicly listed fund it advises. A notification from the SEC was issued confirming this. The investments are focused mostly on the media and entertainment sector.
BlackRock has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine to end the legal proceedings. According to the SEC, BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT) made substantial investments in Aviron Group, LLC via a lending facility between 2015 and 2019. Aviron is a firm that creates print and advertising strategies for around two movies annually.
Not Related to Crypto Sector
According to the SEC, BlackRock misrepresented Aviron as a provider of “Diversified Financial Services” in many publicly accessible annual and semi-annual reports of BIT.
The SEC also claimed that BlackRock exaggerated the interest rate that Aviron was receiving. In 2019, however, the asset management noticed the mistakes and updated data for Aviron’s investment in subsequent years.
In addition to paying the fine, BlackRock also consented to a cease-and-desist order and a reprimand. But the firm neither confirmed nor denied the SEC’s conclusions. Despite the fact that the planned spot Bitcoin ETF has put the world’s biggest asset manager in the crypto limelight, the investment itself has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency industry.
BlackRock was charged by the SEC with failing to provide adequate investment disclosure around the same time that its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was spotted on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) listing, leading many to speculate that acceptance of spot Bitcoin is imminent.