LPL Financial (LPLA) has agreed to pay 3.2 million fine to settle penalties related to its sale of nontraded real estate investment trusts and leveraged exchange-traded funds. The settlements were reached with the Non-Traded REIT Task Force of the North American Securities Administrators Association and regulators in Massachusetts and Delaware.…
Articles Posted in Financial Firms
Credit Suisse To Pay Over $80M to Settle Dark Pool Allegations, Says Source
Bloomberg.com reports that according to someone familiar with the matter, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) will pay over $80 million to resolve federal and state authorities’ claims that it failed to fully disclose information to clients about how it ran its dark pool. Over $50 million of the payment is…
Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, & Other Big Banks Settle $1.87B Settlement Over Swaps Price-Fixing Case
$1.87B securities settlement has been reached with 12 major banks. The case resolves investor claims that the financial firms conspired to rig prices to hold back competition in the credit default market. For now, the resolution is an agreement in principal and the parties have two weeks to work out…
CFTC Investigates JP Morgan For Product Steering
According to The Wall Street Journal, sources say that the CFTC is probing into whether J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) engaged in product steering by inappropriately directing private banking clients to its own hedge funds. Its investigation is also scrutinizing Highbridge Capital Management LLC, which is owned by the bank. The…
Three Ex-Nomura Traders Face RMBS Fraud Charges
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut and the Securities and Exchange Commission are charging three ex-Nomura Securities International (NMR) traders with mortgage-backed securities fraud. The SEC contends that while at Nomura, Michael Gramins, Ross Shapiro, and Tyler Peters misrepresented the bonds and offers that the firm was…
FINRA Fines Charles Schwab $2M for Supervisory Failures, Capital Deficiencies
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is fining Charles Schwab & Co. (SCHW) $2 million. The self-regulatory organization said that between 5/15/14 and 7/1/14, Schwab was capital deficient by up to $775M because of cash inflows that went beyond what it could invest with existing facilities on three occasions. Because of…
FINRA Orders UBS to Pay Investors Over $2.9M For Puerto Rico Bond and Fund Losses
UBS (UBS) must pay over $2.9M to investors Andres Ricardo Gomez and Ana Teresa Lopez-Gonzales for losses related to their investments in Puerto Rico securities. Mr. Ricardo, Ms. Lopez-Gonzales and their relatives filed an arbitration case with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) claiming breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach…
11th Circuit Revives City of Miami’s Mortgage Fraud Lawsuits Against Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of America
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a lower court made a mistake when it threw out the city of Miami’s claims accusing Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC ), and Citigroup Inc. (C) of engaging in predatory mortgage lending to Hispanic and black…
SEC Charges J.P. Morgan Ex-Investment Bank Analyst and Friends with Insider Trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging ex- J. P. Morgan Securities, LLC (JPMS) bank analyst Ashish Aggarwal with illegally tipping confidential information about firm clients in impending acquisitions and mergers involving technology companies to his friend Shahriyar Bolandian. Bolandian then purportedly used the information to trade in his own…
Shareholders Can Sue Barclays Over Libor Rigging, Rules Judge
A U.S. Judge says that the shareholder lawsuit suing Barclays PLC (BCS) for inflating its stock price by manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate can proceed. According to lead plaintiffs, the St. Clair Shores Police & Fire Retirement System in Michigan and the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund of St. Louis,…