State Street To Pay More Than $88M After Overcharging For Mutual Funds State Street Bank and Trust Company will pay over $88M to resolve US Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing it of overcharging investment advisory clients, including mutual funds, for expenses related to its custody of client assets. From…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed civil fraud charges accusing 15 people of either “acting as unregistered brokers” or “aiding-and-abetting” this kind of activity related to the solicitation of microcap issuer Intertech Solution’s “unregistered and fraudulent securities offerings.” Already, 11 of the defendants have consented to the…
Steele Financial is Accused of Investor Fraud The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against investment advisory firm Steele Financial Inc. and its owner Tamara Steele. According to the regulator, they allegedly sold $13M of risky securities to over 120 advisory clients. A lot of these clients…
Stock Promoters Accused in Pump-and-Dump Scam The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against James M. Farinella, his Integrated Capital Partners Inc., Anthony Amado, and his Equity Awareness Group with fraud over the alleged inflation and manipulation of a microcap company’s share price. As a result of…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is barring a number of market participants from the penny stock industry for their involvement in a number of purportedly fake initial public offerings of microcap stocks. The regulator says that investors were bilked because of these schemes. Among those barred is Newport Beach,…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is ordering Cantor Fitzgerald to pay $7.3 million for selling billions of unregistered microcap shares in 2011 and 2012. The firm is also facing sanctions for not having the proper supervisory /anti-money laundering programs in place to identify suspect activity or red flags related…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against California Attorney Richard Weed, Coleman Flaherty, and Thomas Brazil. The regulator contends that Weed facilitated a pump and dump scam involving CitySide Tickets Inc. stock that allowed Flaherty and Brazil to get millions of supposedly unrestricted shares. Investors were barraged…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission put out a Risk Alert reminding brokerage firms about their duties when they take part in unregistered transactions for customers. The guidance came, along with the announcement that the agency had filed an enforcement action against former and current E*TRADE Financial…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against microcap company Natural Blue Resources Inc. and four persons for purportedly hiding from investors that two of them had previously broken the law. The regulator has suspended trading in Natural Blue stock. Natural Blue’s mission was to acquire, establish, or invest…
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that as part of Operation Shell-Expel, its initiative to fight microcap fraud, it is suspending trading in 255 dormant shell companies that it says are “ripe for abuse in the over-the-counter market.” The regulator’s Office of Market Intelligence in its Enforcement Division has been…