In Los Angeles Superior Court, a number of life insurance companies, mutual funds, retirement systems, and other investors are suing Wachovia Securities LLC for alleged fraud related to the sale of senior subordinated notes for beverage maker Le Nature’s Inc. The Pennsylvania-based company filed for bankruptcy in 2006. Causes of…
More than 80 days into the auction-rate securities crisis, about $300 billion in investor funds continue to remain inaccessible. It is important to note that taxpayers, in addition to investors, are suffering in this frozen market because the municipal issuers (including schools, towns, highway authorities, and other entities) of auction…
Sidney Mondschein, a former WFG Investment stockbroker, must disgorge $53,000 in ill-gotten gains he allegedly obtained when he defrauded over 500 senior investors by selling their confidential data to insurance brokers. Last month, Mondschein settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas says that two ex-Southwest Securities Inc. brokers acted fraudulently when they purposely tried to circumvent policies designed to prevent market timing trades. The Securities and Exchange Commission had brought the case against the two men. The brokers were aleged to…
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…
The North American Securities Administrators Association announced that a number of its members are continuing to probe complaints about auction-rate securities (ARS). They are also coordinating efforts to help investors whose money was placed by brokers in these complex investment products get access to their funds. An ARS Task Force,…
U.S. Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand its probe into whether any improper trading in investment banks’ shares has recently taken place. He wants the SEC to determine whether the rumors of misconduct are being…
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 10, ex-Assent LLC registered broker Samuel Childs pled guilty to a conspiracy charge to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and commercial bribery for agreeing to receive $100,000 in exchange for concealing insider trading activities from Assent…
A class action law suit has been filed on behalf of those who bought Schwab YieldPlus Investor Funds Investor Shares and Schwab YieldPlus Funds Select Shares against the Schwab Corporation, the underwriter and investment adviser connected to the funds, and several Schwab officers and directors. However, many smart investors are…
Ameriprise Financial says it will pay $3.8 million to settle a lawsuit with New Hampshire regulators accusing six of the company’s financial advisers of forging the signatures of at least 96 customers. The signatures were allegedly forged to make it seem that certain financial plans had been delivered when in…