(Bloomberg) -- Cantor Fitzgerald LP agreed to pay $6.75 million to settle US Securities and Exchange allegations that it misled investors in two blank-check firms before their stock-market debuts.

The firm, led by Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick, controlled two special purpose acquisition companies in 2020 and 2021 that raised $750 million. The SPACs claimed in regulatory filings that they hadn’t had substantive talks with potential merger targets, the agency said in a statement on Thursday. In reality, the entities had already started negotiations with a small group of candidates, it said.

“This enforcement action reflects the straightforward proposition that any disclosures about substantive discussions with potential targets must be materially accurate,” Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the regulator’s enforcement division, said in the statement.

The firm settled without admitting to or denying the allegations. Lutnick, tapped by Donald Trump to run the Department of Commerce, isn’t a defendant in the civil case.  

“No investor was ever harmed by the alleged issues described in the order,” Cantor said in a statement. “We are pleased to have concluded this matter by mutual agreement with the SEC.”

The Cantor-led SPACs took smart-glassmaker View Inc. and satellite company Satellogic Inc. public.

SPACs are publicly listed entities armed with a war chest of cash that seek out a promising private company to take public through a merger. The arrangement helps established companies avoid the labor-intensive process of a traditional initial public offering. But as a result, investors buy in without knowing what entities they might ultimately acquire.

Once seen as the backwater of the public markets, SPACs surged in popularity in 2020 and 2021 before regulatory scrutiny and high-profile blowups soured the deals.

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--With assistance from Sally Bakewell.

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