Former Gov. Paterson pays $25G to settle stock reporting case

Former New York Gov. David Paterson paid $25,000 to settle charges that he didn’t report stock transactions as a director of a company promoting a Georgia movie studio that was accused of defrauding investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.

The founder and executives of Medient Studios, later called Moon River Studios, told investors they were constructing the largest movie studio in North American in Savannah, Georgia, the SEC said, but had nowhere near the funding to fulfill promises about starting up their “Studioplex.”

Paterson and two other directors were not accused of participating in the fraud, but of violating securities laws by not reporting stock they got while serving on the board and failing “in their personal responsibility to comply with the beneficial ownership reporting requirements.”

Filings by the SEC’s Georgia office indicated that Paterson served as a director from May 2014 until February 2015, and was issued 29 million shares shortly after joining the board.

A lawyer for the ex-governor, who served from 2008 to 2010, said the case only involved failure to report stock he was given for becoming a director, and he never bought or sold traded Medient stock.

“The SEC acknowledged that Gov. Paterson was not complicit in any of the alleged wrongdoing,” said lawyer Michael Ference. “As it relates to Gov. Paterson it’s an administrative issue which has been resolved.”