Cromwell Financial Services Inc. and several of its employees says they will pay over $20 million to settle allegations by the state of New Hampshire and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that they engaged in fraudulent solicitations. The New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation and the CFTC claim that Cromwell…
Oppenheimer & Co. says it will pay a $1 million fine to settle charges by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that it turned in false information regarding mutual fund breakpoints. The company also has agreed to submit to having an independent consultant conduct an audit regarding how Oppenheimer handles regulatory…
The New York Stock Exchange Regulation Inc. is disciplining nine companies and eight people for numerous violation. The firms disciplined include: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith: Fined $100,000 for violating rule 123c about 480 times when it cancelled or submitted securities orders after the mandatory cutoff period. Citigroup Global…
Fidelity Investments has launched 11 funds focused on generating steady income for retired seniors. The launch followed a similar launch by The Vanguard Group Inc., who will launch three similar funds in the next couple of months. Fidelity and Vanguard are the largest and second largest mutual funds in the…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered Interactive Brokers LLC (IBL) to relinquish $175,000 in commissions, for failing to properly supervise its compliance employees while handling a commodity futures trading account. The National Futures Association (NFA) recently fined IBL $125,000 regarding the same matter and for failing to maintain…
The Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York have filed cases accusing a former MetLife employee of what is perhaps a new low in securities fraud: Misappropriation of funds from the widow of a victim of the September 11 terrorist attack on the…
38 stock loan traders from A.G. Edwards, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer, and Nomura Securities are accused of stealing over $12 Million in stock loan kickbacks from their Wall Street firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the employees with the more than $12 million theft. The SEC says that from…
NYSE Regulation fined 14 of its member firms a total of $10.4 million in fines for failing to deliver trade confirmations to their clients and other violations. Citigroup Global Markets received the heaviest fine of $2.25 million for failing to deliver trade confirmation documents in more than a million consumer…
A former broker and branch manager of a Michigan office of GunnAllen Financial, Inc. are accused of selling fraudulent investments. His clients, many of whom are retirees, recently learned that the partnership investments may have been part of a Ponzi scheme. According to reports, a mastermind of the scheme stated…
The Florida Office of Financial Regulation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are investigating Michael O. Traynor and his son, Matthew O. Traynor, former brokers at InterSecurities, Inc. Complaints from at least a dozen investors allege that the Traynors defrauded clients out of approximately $8 million. In addition to…