The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled an enforcement action against Forcerank, LLC, a provider of a mobile phone game that enables players to engage in fantasy stock trading for a small charge, much of which was refunded to players in the form of prizes for successful predictions. The SEC takes the position that the transactions involved, however small, fall into the class of swaps and derivatives that, under Dodd-Frank, cannot be offered to the public except under intensively regulated conditions.
Talk about using a nuke to kill a fly.
