The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Virtus Investment Advisers will pay $16.5M to resolve charges accusing the investment management firm of misleading mutual fund investors and others using ads with false historical performance information about exchange-traded fund portfolio strategy AlphaSector. According to the regulator, the firm publicized a performance…
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) recently introduced legislation that would let defendants choose the option of having their case tried in federal court instead of by a Securities and Exchange Commission administrative law judge. Garrett believes that the regulator has been overusing its in-house courts, practically turning itself into “judge, jury,…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Fenway Partners LLC and four of its executives. According to the regulator, when fund and portfolio company assets were used to pay ex-firm employees and an entity to which the New York-based private equity firm is affiliated the parties did not…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is awarding over $325K to an ex-investment firm employee who notified the regulator about misconduct that had been going on at his former employer. The information he provided allowed the SEC’s enforcement staff to investigate and discover the extent of the fraud. In addition to…
SEC Seeks to Limit JP Morgan’s Ability to Raise Client Money An Over $200K settlement between J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and regulators has stalled because of efforts by federal regulators to limit the firm’s ability to raise money for clients. The move is an attempt to place a…
Credit Rater Accused of Misrepresenting Surveillance Approach for Complex Securities Credit rating agency DBSR Inc. will pay nearly $6 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges. The regulator is accusing the credit rater of misrepresenting the surveillance method it used for rating certain kinds of complex financial instruments over…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc., War Chest Capital Partners LLC, Harvest Capital Strategies LLC, Omega Advisors, Inc., Auriga Global Investors, Sociedad de Valores, S.A., and, Sabby Management LLC. All six firms settled the enforcement actions, which allege short selling violations ahead…
FINRA Expels Halcyon Cabot, Bars Chief Executives Halcyon Cabot Partners, Ltd. has been expelled by FINRA. The regulator also has barred its CEO Michael Morris and CCO Ronald Heineman from the securities industry. The reasons for the expulsion and bars include fraud, abusive sales practices, the concealment of private placement…
SEC to Propose Reforms to Improve Liquidity Management for Open-End Funds The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to propose a package of rule reforms to improve effective liquidity risk management for open-end funds, including exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. If approved, both would have to put into place liquidity risk…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Latour Trading LLC with violating the agency’s rules regarding market structure. To resolve the case, the high-frequency trading firm will pay over $8M, including more than $3 million of disgorgement of gross trading profits, rebates it received from exchanges, and prejudgemenet interest, as…