Taking the side of investors who are suing Merck for securities fraud, the Obama Administration filed an amicus brief last month arguing that the plaintiffs did not wait too long to file their complaints against the drug manufacturer. use. The painkiller drug was taken off the market in 2004. However,…
The US Supreme Court has decided not to listen to an appeal filed by InfoSpace founder Naveen Jain requesting that he be allowed to sue JP Morgan Securities and his former attorneys for allegedly mishandling an insider stock trading lawsuit. What happened was that InfoSpace Inc. INSP shareholder Thomas Dreiling…
The Securities and Exchange Commission may be “too close” to larger investment firms that they give them preferential treatment in SEC Actions, says a Harvard Law School study. One “tentative” explanation cited by the study is that SEC officials look to the larger broker-dealers-especially those located in New York-for future…
The US Treasury Department has announced that it will keep guaranteeing money market funds until the end of April 2009. The Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds was created because of worries that the funds’ net asset values would fall under $1 (a value drop known as “breaking the…
A source in investment banking who is choosing to remain anonymous says that the futures of nearly 7,000 financial advisors and registered representatives responsible for generating some $1.3 billion in fees and commissions in 2007 will be decided by American International Group Inc’s large scale asset sale. Details of the…
The FBI is currently investigating Don Weir, a broker and former vice president of investment firm St. Louis-based HFI Securities Inc. The federal probe comes after silver and gold coins worth millions of dollars were found in the basement of Weir’s former home. The authorities confiscated the bouillon after Weir’s…
According to the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, the New Jersey Division of Investment went beyond its authority with its rules allowing the division director to hire external managers to oversee pension fund investments. The panel however, did uphold the rules allowing the division to invest in private equity…
Security regulators in Missouri, Utah, and a number of other US states are accusing World Financial Group of making variable annuities sales that are unsuitable and misrepresenting investment returns. A number of World Financial customers have filed private arbitration claims making similar allegations. World Financial is owned by Dutch insurer…
Former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Annette Nazareth says that those in charge of overseeing the US financial markets are years behind when it comes to “rethinking regulation” and modernizing the structure required to keep up with the changing investment markets. Nazareth voiced her concerns to the US Chamber of Commerce…
An AARP Financial Inc. survey says that many U.S. investors make investment errors and miss out on opportunities to invest because they find financial jargon confusing, technical, and hard to understand. GfK Custom Research North America of New York interviewed 1,203 adults by phone for the survey. Findings included: *Over…