SEC Blocks Toks’ Request for IPO

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it blocked a first-time stock sale by Toks Inc., crimping Ade Ogunjobi’s apparent vision of acquiring General Motors Corp., AT&T; Corp. and other major U.S. companies.

The proposal by Toks, which has one employee--Ogunjobi--and no revenue, to buy some of the world’s biggest companies isn’t credible, an SEC administrative law judge decided in rejecting the filing for a $100,000 initial public offering.

If the SEC had cleared the initial offering filed last August, Toks said it planned to register an additional $10 billion of bonds and $2 trillion of Class A stock to fund the takeovers.

“The registration statement goes well beyond hyperbole with a series of assumptions that it presents as realistic events,” said an order this week by SEC Chief Administrative Law Judge Brenda Murray, suspending the filing.

Another problem: Toks didn’t explain how the company would have securities worth $2 trillion to complete its takeover plans, which also called for the acquisition of Hughes Electronics Corp., AT&T; Wireless Services Inc. and General Electric Co., among others.

Ogunjobi, who operates Toks out of his Los Angeles apartment, didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment.

The registration describes Ogunjobi as a naturalized U.S. citizen born in London and educated at a Catholic school for boys in Nigeria, his parents’ homeland.

The case is of interest to securities lawyers because the SEC rarely suspends registration statements. The agency stopped using such suspensions about 25 years ago because the process is so cumbersome, requiring a detailed set of proceedings, said Richard Rowe, a securities attorney with the law firm Proskauer Rose.