Mr. Brent Richard Baker | Active Attorney

Brent Baker is a shareholder and member of the Litigation department and the firm's Securities Litigation Group. Previously, Mr. Baker served with the SEC for over 13 years in various positions of increasing responsibility. He was a staff attorney, senior counsel and special counsel in the Division of Enforcement before leaving in 2004. While at the SEC, he conducted enforcement investigations and litigated a wide range of matters involving public company reporting and disclosure, investment companies and investment advisers, broker-dealer regulation and supervision, securities offering registration and exemption, insider trading, market manipulation and Internet fraud. Mr. Baker was also a Special Assistant United States Attorney for close to four years assisting in the prosecution of criminal securities violations.

Mr. Baker's practice focuses on SEC defense, corporate internal investigations and on representing corporate and individual clients in all white collar regulatory enforcement and litigation matters in court and before the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and other federal and state agencies. Mr. Baker has also represented accountants, broker-dealers, investment advisors and individual registered representatives before the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

Mr. Baker is experienced in the defense of SEC investigations and enforcement proceedings brought under federal securities laws as well aggressively defending companies, their boards of directors, senior executive officers, lawyers and others in high-profile SEC matters. He has worked on many aspects of securities regulation. These matters include financial fraud, ponzi schemes, hedge fund trading, unregistered Investment Advisor and Broker-dealer issues, related party transactions, stock lending issues, insider trading, stock manipulation and real estate-backed securities cases.

Before joining Parsons Behle & Latimer, he was deputy general counsel at Overstock.com, Inc. (NasdaqNM:OSTK).

Related Activities and Skills:

• Judicial law clerk to the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins, U.S. District Court, for the District of Utah, 1989-1990
• Vice Chair, Utah State Bar Securities Section
• Recipient, SEC Chairman's Award for Excellence (2002)
• Managing Editor, University of Oregon Journal of Environmental Law & Litigation
• Chair, University of Utah Marriott Library Advisory Board
• Member, Working Group on Investment Adviser Venture Capital and Private Equity Rules, Utah State Securities Division (2009)

Representative Matters:

Mr. Baker currently represents Laura Pendergest-Holt, the former Chief Investment Officer of Stanford International Bank in an action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2009 alleging an $8 billion international ponzi scheme. This matter also involves a parallel criminal case.

Mr. Baker currently represents the senior investment officer of large State Pension Fund in an investigation by the SEC into the role and compensation of placement agents and intermediaries in public pension fund investments (also known as "pay-to-play" cases).

Mr. Baker represented an individual in a civil asset forfeiture proceeding and successfully obtained the return of approximately $15 million in seized funds from the U.S. government.

Mr. Baker represented Joseph Milanowski in the SEC v. Joseph Milanowski, USA Capital et al. matter filed in Federal Court in Nevada.

Mr. Baker represents at least eight individuals or entities in SEC investigations across the U.S.

Mr. Baker represents, or has recently represented individuals or entities in the following cases:

• SEC v. CMKX (D. Nevada)
• SEC v. Universal Express (S.D.N.Y)
• SEC v. Finance 500 (C.D. Cal.)(parallel criminal proceeding)
• SEC v. Escala Group, Inc. (S.D.N.Y)
• SEC v. Prime Time Group, Inc. (S.D. Florida)

Related News:

• No Misdeed Goes Unpunished, Reuters Hedge World (March 23, 2010)
• Wall Street's Naked Swindle, Rolling Stone, Issue 1089 (October 2009)
• Utah Lawyer Relishes High-stakes Battle, Salt Lake Tribune (May 17, 2009)
• Options, Opinions Abound for What SEC Should Do About Shorting; Reinstatement of the Uptick Rule, IA Week/IA Watch (April 6, 2009)
• FBI Arrests Stanford Investment Officer Pendergest-Holt, Latin American Herald Tribune (February 17, 2009)
• Stanford Still Shopping for a Legal Team, Houston Chronicle (March 13, 2009)
• Lawyers for Stanford Exec Object to Search of Her Home, National Law Journal, (quoting Zach Lowe of the American lawyer)(March 12, 2009)
• Stanford Official Charged With Lying to SEC Testified Without Her Own Lawyer, ABA Journal (March 4, 2009)
• Lessons From the Stanford Scandal: Bring Your Own Lawyer, The American lawyer, (March 4, 2009)
• Stanford Drama; Who Will Rep the Top Two Execs?, The AmLaw Daily, (March 2, 2009)
• Allen Stanford borrowed 1.6 billion from his investment empire, The Times (London), (February 28, 2009)
• Stanford Investment Chief Arrested in Fraud Case, Washington Post (February 27, 2009)
• Impact of Short Sale Restrictions Studied, IA Week/IA Watch (February 9, 2009)
• Accusations of Fraud, Securities Violations: SEC sues ex-USA Capital president, Prospectus violations, misuse of money alleged, Las Vegas Review-Journal (April 24, 2008)
• The Securities Bazaar: Destabilizing the U.S. Markets?, HumanEvents.com (January 23, 2008)