Rani Tarek Jarkas is a Swiss investment executive and the chairman of Cedrus Group, a financial services and investment group active mainly in Greater China and Switzerland. He previously owned and ran Global Crown Capital, a San Francisco-based broker-dealer and investment adviser.

In 2014, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) barred him from associating with FINRA member firms, a sanction the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upheld in 2016.

Career

Early career Jarkas is of Lebanese origin. He entered the US securities industry in 1995 and worked at several brokerage firms before taking over Global Crown Capital. He moved to Hong Kong in 2011.

Global Crown Capital In 2002, Jarkas became the owner and CEO of Global Crown Capital, a San Francisco-based firm registered as both a broker-dealer and an investment adviser. In 2006, Institutional Investor reported that Global Crown had approximately US$30 million in assets under management and had established investment funds focused on nanotechnology.

In 2009, Cedrus Investments, then a newly established Cayman Islands company founded and chaired by Jarkas, acquired Global Crown's institutional business. Global Crown withdrew its FINRA registration in September 2009.

Cedrus Group and Chinese activity Jarkas, a Swiss citizen, owns Hong Kong-based Cedrus Investments. By 2021 Cedrus had offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hainan. That year it opened a regional office in Zurich. In May 2023 the group opened an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing, and Jarkas, its chairman and CEO, said it planned to invest 1 billion yuan in Chinese healthcare and technology companies. At the third Belt and Road Forum in October 2023, Jarkas told China Daily that Cedrus had set up two private equity funds for investment in Greater China.

In February 2025 Cedrus and the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau jointly organized an investment event for Swiss biomedical companies. According to China Daily, by 2025 he had spent more than 15 years in Beijing.

In October 2010 the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong listed Cedrus Investments (HK) Limited on its alert list as an entity not licensed by or registered with the commission for any regulated activity. The entry remained on the alert list as of May 2026.

Regulatory and legal matters

SEC proceeding (2006–2007) In March 2006, the SEC instituted proceedings against Global Crown, Jarkas and his colleague Antoine Chaya. The SEC alleged that they had concealed losses of more than 20% from investors in Cogent Capital Management, a hedge fund they advised, through account statements that overstated the fund's performance. Global Crown said that a US$228,000 reserve at the centre of the case reflected an accounting decision. The SEC subsequently dismissed the proceeding following the 2006 court ruling in Goldstein v. SEC.

FINRA disciplinary proceedings In January 2010, Jarkas settled a FINRA disciplinary matter concerning trading in a customer's account. Without admitting or denying the allegations, he consented to a US$25,000 fine and a six-month suspension from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. FINRA found that he had recommended or executed a volume of securities transactions without a reasonable basis for believing that the level of trading was suitable for the customer.

In 2011, FINRA brought a separate disciplinary case against Jarkas following examinations of Global Crown. In 2014, a FINRA hearing panel barred him from associating with any FINRA member firm because he had twice failed to appear for on-the-record testimony in 2009. The panel also found that Global Crown had conducted securities business with insufficient net capital and that Jarkas had failed to seek approval for a material change in the firm's business. FINRA's National Adjudicatory Council largely affirmed the decision in 2015. In April 2016, the SEC upheld the bar and the findings, except for a net-capital violation relating to one date.

Indonesian dispute In December 2015, Harun Abidin, a businessman from Medan who had invested through Cedrus since 2012, filed a police complaint accusing Jarkas of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. In 2016, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Indonesian National Police sent mutual legal assistance requests to Hong Kong and Switzerland as part of an investigation into allegations that Cedrus had transferred US$4.2 million in shares to unauthorized parties. Cedrus disputed The Jakarta Posts account of the case, saying that the matter concerned a margin-loan dispute rather than investment fraud.

Cedrus subsequently sued Abidin and the Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI) in the South Jakarta District Court over the freezing of approximately US$22 million in shares held through the firm. The court rejected Cedrus's claim in 2017. In December 2018, the Jakarta High Court upheld the lower court's decision, rejecting Cedrus's challenge concerning Abidin's police report and the freezing of the shares.

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