Recently, Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LTD LLP Founder and Securities Fraud Attorney William Shepherd wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission voicing his support for needed changes to the public reporting requirements on stockbrokers. His letter was published on the SEC’s Web site and included a number…
Evergreen Investment Management Company, a Wells Fargo unit, has agreed to a $40 million settlement with federal and state regulators over allegations that it misrepresented securities in short-term bond funds. The settlement could be a sign that other fund providers, including Morgan Keegan, Charles Schwab Corp., and Fidelity Investments, may…
According to New Hampshire securities regulators, UBS Financial Services Inc., a unit of UBS AG, misled investors regarding complex securities that were issued by Lehman Brothers before the latter filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008. The Bureau of Securities Regulation says investors were misled when the representatives for the UBS…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that RD Capital Group, based in Puerto Rico, and its president Ramon Luis Dominguez have agreed to pay $950,000 in restitution plus interest to three clients over fraudulent and excessive markups involving the sale of U.S. Treasury Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal…
Another state has filed an individual enforcement against brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel, Nicolaus, & Co. Inc. On May 7, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission’s ‘s Division of Securities and Retail Franchising filed its civil lawsuit accusing the broker-dealer of making misrepresentations and false statements related to the sale of…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has issued an order granting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for an asset freeze against Excel Lease Fund, Inc. and its owner, Benny L. Judah. Both are accused of being involved in a $40 million Texas securities fraud scheme…
Merrill Lynch Life Agency Inc. will pay $18 million to the Illinois Division of Insurance to settle the state’s investigation into the investment firm’s involvement with a trust fund overseen by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association. The trust was supposed to cover funeral costs for about 49,000 consumers that had…
VSR Financial Services, an investment firm, has agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle a FINRA claim that it failed to properly supervise two ex-brokers accused of improperly selling risky investments to 249 customers. The agreement ends the litigation brought by the investors, many of them retirees, against VSR and…
Earlier this month, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ex-Dallas Cowboys football player Michael Kiselak and three other defendants were charge for their alleged involvement in a $24 million investment fraud scheme. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the defendants, which include Kiselak, who…
California Attorney General Edmund G Brown, Jr. is suing Wells Fargo Investments LLC, Wells Fargo Institutional Securities, and Wells Fargo Brokerage Services for $1.5 billion. Brown is accusing the Wells Fargo affiliates of violating state securities laws and misleading California investors with false statements about auction-rate securities. According to the…