Sims Not Implicated in Brokerage Fraud Case

Sims Communications Inc. said it has not been implicated in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud case against a New York brokerage that sold the company’s stock to investors.

Last month, brokerage HGI Inc. was ordered by a judge to pay more than $90 million to the SEC, which accused HGI of defrauding its clients by manipulating the stocks of several small companies, including Sims, an Irvine-based health care products and services company.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in New York granted the SEC a “default” award against Long Island-based HGI because HGI never responded to the SEC lawsuit.

The SEC said HGI underwrote stocks in Sims and other small companies from 1994 to 1997. Sims and the other companies weren’t charged by the SEC.

“We had nothing to do with that,” said Marvin Berger, an executive vice president of Sims.