For decades, telemarkers in “boiler rooms” have bilked the elderly by convincing touting them to buy investments which supposedly pay high rates of return or have fabulous growth potential. Now thieves operating in small offices in Canada and warehouses in India work day and night targeting elderly Americans. Working from…
Last week, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. said it would pay a $200,000 fine to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges are connected to Leg Mason Wood Walker Inc’s allegedly improper interference with auction rate securities. Citigroup is LMWW’s merger successor. According to the SEC, the penalty…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed class action claims against Goldman Sachs & Co. stemming from two Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit–or REMIC–deals with Fannie Mae. Judge Richard Leon said that the plaintiffs–Fannie Mae investors–-failed plead a case which involved “direct acts” of securities fraud by…
The NASD announced this week that it fined two Fidelity brokerage firms $400,000 for preparing and distributing misleading sales literature promoting Systematic Investment Plans, which were sold primarily to U.S. military personnel. Issuance and sales of new systematic investment plans after these were prohibited by Congress last fall. The NASD…
In the wake of the collapse of the subprime residential mortgage market, the leading bond rating agencies are beginning to crack down on what they see as risky lending practices in commercial real estate as well. Like residential loans, commercial mortgages are pooled and packaged into bonds that are sliced…
An NASD Hearing Panel issued $100,000 in fines against Kenneth Pasternak, former CEO of Knight Securities, L.P. (now known as Knight Equity Markets, L.P.), and John Leighton, former head of the firm’s Institutional Sales Desk, for supervisory violations in connection with fraudulent sales to institutional customers in 1999 and 2000.…
USA Capital Mortgage Company, a Las Vegas company, filed for bankruptcy last year listing approximately three-quarters billion dollars in debts to creditors. Most of this is owed to investors who purchased mortgage trust deeds and/or unit trusts which contained trust deeds. Apparently there were a number of brokerage firms involved,…
After the U.S. Supreme Court decided to let brokerage firms make customers sign arbitration agreements, a lot of people thought that this was a faster, less expensive alternative than letting investors take their claims to courts. Recently, however, what seemed like a good way to resolve disputes between brokers and…
NYSE Regulation Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission say that a clearing affiliate and prime broker of Goldman Sachs Group will pay $2 million in fines and penalties over its alleged role in an illegal short-sale trading scheme that was executed by Goldman Sachs customers through their accounts with…
The NASD is charging Albert Lowenthal, Oppenheimer & Co.’s CEO, with knowingly turning in data that was not complete or accurate when it responded to the self-regulatory agency’s request that the brokerage firm assess its own practices pertaining to mutual fund breakpoint discounts. This latest complaint stems from a report…