The allegations read: The securities and exchange commission (the "commission"), for its complaint against roy gagaza, alleges that he served as an unregistered broker on behalf of 1 global capital, llc ("1 global" or "the company"), a south florida merchant cash advance company. Gagaza raised more than $10.8 million for 1 global from the offer and sale of securities in unregistered transactions to numerous investors in at least 83 transactions. Gagaza earned approximately $403,000 in transaction-based commissions from those sales. 1 global marketed its investment as a safe and secure alternative to the stock market and baselessly claimed that investing in the company's merchant cash advance business would achieve high single-digit or low double-digit annual returns. Like other 1 global sales agents, gagaza repeated the representations that investors in 1 global could earn high single digit to low double digit returns and indicated that 1 global was a "good short term option" and could give them "peace of mind for some money in a volatile market." unbeknownst to gagaza and his clients, many of whom invested their retirement savings, 1 global and its chairman and chief executive officer (ceo) were misrepresenting how they were using investor money, syphoning off millions in investor funds to fund the ceo's luxury lifestyle and operate unrelated businesses. 1 global's business came to a crashing halt when it filed for bankruptcy, leaving many of gagaza's customers and thousands of other investors with massive losses. During the time he offered and sold 1 global's securities, gagaza was not registered as a broker-dealer with the commission or associated with a registered broker-dealer. Additionally, 1 global did not register its securities offering with the commission, and there was no applicable exemption from registration for this offering. By engaging in this conduct, gagaza violated sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the securities act of 1933 ("securities act"), and section 15(a)(1) of the securities exchange act of 1934 ("exchange act").
