The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA are issuing this alert to warn investors about potential scams that exploit the Gulf oil spill and related cleanup efforts. While some of the companies touting their role in the cleanup may be legitimate, others could be bogus operations that are only looking to clean out unsuspecting investors.



In a recent action, on May 25, the SEC suspended trading in shares of ACT Clean Technologies Inc., of Huntington Beach, Calif. The Commission took this action because of questions about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information concerning, among other things: (1) British Petroleum’s purported expression of interest in using a so-called oil fluidizer technology purportedly licensed to ACT’s wholly-owned subsidiary for use in cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico; and (2) the purported results of field tests finding that the oil fluidizers are effective for use in cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.