According to the SEC, Houston-based advisory firms Tri-Star Advisors and Parallax Investments LLC made thousands of principal transactions through the broker-dealer they are affiliated with but did not disclose that they were doing this to clients even though they are obligated to notify customers/get their permission beforehand. Also facing Texas…
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Halliburton v. Erica John Fund. In it, the Texas-based multinational corporation is appealing a class action securities lawsuit that tests the fraud-on-the market theory. That doctrine became part of securities law in 1988 after the highest court’s ruling in Basic v. Levinson.…
A jury in Texas cleared Mark Cuban of insider trading charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of using a private tip to avoid losing money when selling his shares of Internet company Mamma.com. Following the court victory, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA basketball team, spoke…
The SEC has filed fraud charges against a couple over a Texas securities scam that allegedly targeted foreign investors wanting to become American residents. Bebe and Marco Ramirez and three of their companies-USA Now LLC, Now Co. Loan Services, and USA Now Energy Capital Group LP-are accused of fraudulently raising…
An Allen, Texas man is sentenced to 40-years behind bars for bilking elderly women out of close to $500,000 in a phone annuity scam. Robert Mangiafico Jr. pleaded guilty to money laundering and theft related in the Texas securities fraud case. According to prosecutors, Mangiafico persuaded a number of widows…
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have filed separate yet parallel securities fraud lawsuits against a Texas money manager accused of bilking investors in a foreign-exchange trading scheme. Kevin G. White allegedly took approximately $1.7 million of the $7 million of investor funds he raised…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Trendon Shavers and his company Bitcoin Savings & Trust, accusing the two of them of running a Ponzi scam involving Bitcoin. In its Texas securities fraud case, the regulator contends that Shavers offered and sold the denominated investments online with the use of…
In Dallas, Chief Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has thrown out the class action lawsuit filed by Verizon Communications (VZ) management retirees looking to stop their ex-employer from selling $8.4 billion of their pensions to Prudential Insurance Company of America…
The passing of S. Mark Powell, who runs Invesco Ltd.’s (IVZ) Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, has exposed the vulnerabilities of some of the wealthiest members of Texas’s investment community. Powell was found dead in May, and, since then, investors have been stepping forward to say they lent him millions…
Federal agents in Texas are playing part in a number of the biggest forfeiture cases in the history of US law enforcement. However, the details of cases, which have involved the seizure Caribbean bank accounts, luxury condominiums, and stud racehorses purportedly linked to drug dealers and organized crime, money launderers,…