By Clifford Histed and Gilbert Perales, K&L Gates LLP ( May 2, 2017, 11:50 AM EDT) -- On March 10, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that a Ukraine-based trading firm committed securities fraud by manipulating the U.S. securities markets hundreds of thousands of times with the alleged help of a New York-based brokerage firm and its owner.[1] Specifically, the SEC alleges that Avalon FA Ltd. made more than $28 million in illicit profits by employing two manipulative trading schemes — "layering" and "cross-market manipulation."[2] The SEC further alleges that Avalon's owner, Nathan Fayyer and Sergey Pustelnik, who allegedly held an undisclosed, controlling interest in Avalon and embedded himself at Lek Securities Corp. as a registered representative, directly facilitated the manipulative schemes, and that Lek Corp. and its owner Samuel Lek made the schemes possible by providing Avalon access to the U.S. securities markets.[3]...