The New York Stock Exchange Regulation Inc. has censured and fined four firms for trade violations. The four investment firms, Citigroup, AK Capital, National Financial Services, and Tradestation, agreed to the censures and fines but did not admit to or deny wrongdoing. According to NYSER: • Citigroup Global Markets Inc.…
Morgan Keegan & Co. has been ordered to pay $51,000 to Larry and Diane Papasan. Larry Papasan is Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division’s former president. The Papasans filed their arbitration claim against Morgan Keegan last year after they lost about $80,000 in the account they had with the investment…
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is offering to repurchase $480 million in auction-rate securities from investors in Michigan. The full buybacks are for investors who bought ARS between 2006 and early 2008. JPMorgan’s offer is part of a settlement that it reached with the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation.…
Two Dresdner Kleinwort traders were censured for market abuse by the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority. According to the FSA, Darren Morton had access to inside information about a possible new issue of Barclays floating-rate bonds in March 2007 that would offer more favorable terms than the last issue. The…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is upholding the market timing violations against two AG Edwards and Sons Inc. supervisors and one of its stockbrokers. Billions of dollars were involved in the mutual fund market timing transactions. While market timing, which involves the buying and selling of mutual fund shares…
Charles Schwab Corp. has received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission about possible civil charges related to the discount brokerage’s Schwab Total Bond Market Fund and Schwab YieldPlus Fund. Schwab has been the target of regulatory investigations over the two funds and is a defendant in a…
Investors who invested into YieldPlus Funds issued by the Charles Schwab Corp. must take immediate action to avoid being limited in recovery to the amount obtained through a class action suit. Many with significant losses have been advised by attorneys to seek individual recovery in Securities Arbitration through the Financial…
Citigroup, Inc. has agreed to pay a $600,000 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fine to settle claims that its alleged inadequate supervision of certain derivative transactions between 2002 and 2005 allowed a number of foreign clients to avoid paying taxes on dividends. The way this allegedly worked is that during a…
A judge has ordered a former Merrill Lynch employee, San Antonio stockbroker Bruce E. Hammonds, to serve almost five years in prison and three years supervised release for Texas securities fraud. Bruce E. Hammonds also must pay $1.1 million in restitution to the Merrill Lynch investors he defrauded and almost…
The Colorado Securities Division is suing Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. for securities fraud. State regulators are accusing the broker-dealer of making false assurances to investors about auction-rate securities. In its Colorado securities fraud complaint, the securities division accused Stifel Nifel, Nicolaus of violating the Colorado Securities Act by allowing investors…