The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against broker Demitrios Hallas accusing him of making unsuitable investments in five clients accounts and misappropriating over $170K from these customers. The regulator is seeking a permanent injunction and the return of ill-gotten gains, along with interest and penalties. According to…
Investor Awarded Over $1M After Allegedly Misleading Sales Pitch by Wilbank Securities Broker A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel has awarded investor Grace S. Huitt over $1 million in her broker fraud claim against Wilbanks Securities. According to Huitt, one of the firm’s brokers presented her with a sales pitch…
Herschel “Tress” Knippa III, a Dallas, Texas resident, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The former registered broker, who owned a commodities trading firm, was implicated over fraudulent market rigging involving ForceField Energy Inc. (FNRG), which was a supposed global distributor and provider of LED lighting products…
Bond Fraud Case Leads to Conviction for Former Visium Asset Management A jury has convicted Stefan Lumiere, a former Visium Asset Management LP portfolio manager, of wire fraud and securities fraud. Lumiere was accused of conspiring to artificially inflate the value of a fund that was invested in debt issued…
Morgan Stanley Accused of Overbilling Investment Advisory Clients The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) will pay a $13M penalty to resolve charges accusing the firm of overbilling clients through billing system and coding mistakes and violating the custody rule regarding yearly surprise exams.…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is charging two brokers with securities fraud. The regulator claims that Donald J. Fowler and Gregory T. Dean fraudulently employed an in-and-out trading strategy that was not suitable for customers so that they could make more in commissions. Because of their actions, 27 customers…
UBS Financial Services (UBS) has terminated the employment of Connecticut broker Phil Fiore Jr. The broker-dealer says that even while Fiore was under heightened supervision he did not tell the firm about his outside business activities. UBS contends that he violated firm policies, such as not disclosing that he was serving…
Charles Caleb Fackrell is sentenced 63 months behind bars and three years of court supervision. The 36-year-old former North Carolina financial adviser, who worked with LPL Financial (LPLA), pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud earlier this year. He now must pay his victims nearly $820K in restitution. According…
According to the Massachusetts Securities Division, brokerage firms that hire brokers with troubled disciplinary records are not doing a proper job of supervising them. The state, which recently released its findings from its examination of 241 broker-dealers who are registered in the state and retain an above average number of…
Ex-Newbridge Securities Broker Involved in $131M Fraud Pleads Guilty Gerald Cocuzzo, has pleaded guilty to securities fraud related to his involvement in a $131M market manipulation scam involving Forcefield Energy Inc. (FNRG). According to the U.S. Justice Department, between 1/2009 and 4/2015, Cocuzzo and others sought to bilk investors in…