The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has won a judgment against a businessman who misleadingly said that he had letters of credit (L/Cs) ready and waiting for two major US takeover bids.

The judgment found that Allen Weintraub and his company AWMS Acquisitions, sometimes operating under the trading name of Sterling Global Holdings, issued phoney tender offers in 2011 for Eastman Kodak and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines.

L/Cs available

When Weintraub emailed his supposed offers for the US companies to media outlets and potential investors, he misrepresented that he had sound financial backers and could produce L/Cs "within five minutes."

He also claimed he had been involved in other large acquisitions and was already discussing his offer with Kodak.

No financing

But before Weintraub emailed his offers to Kodak and AMR, he had gone to three banks and asked for loans of US$3 billion, US$3.5 billion, and US$1.3 billion.

None of the banks agreed to finance the businessman, who never obtained an L/C or any other type of financing agreement.

Penalties

The 10 January judgment against Weintraub and his businesses requires them to pay US$400,000 in civil money penalties.

It says that Weintraub created the misleading impression that his businesses were poised to purchase the US companies, whereas in reality they had substantially no assets or funds to complete the offers.

Chequered history

The judgment also notes that Weintraub failed disclose aspects of his personal background to his acquisition targets or investors.

In 2008 he pleaded guilty to two felony counts and was on probation when he sent the offer letters to Kodak and AMR. In 2002 he was barred from acting as an officer or director of any public company.

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