The Wealth Advisor Institute wants the way U-5 termination forms are filed to be reformed. The forms are used for reporting information about why a broker has left a firm. A copy of the form then has to be given by the broker to a new employer. The WAI called…
Washington lawyer Peggy Blake, who recently joined Winston & Strawn as a corporate partner, reports her foreign financial services clients are “very optimistic” about the movement afoot at the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a mutual recognition regime. Yet, during recent trips to London and Geneva, she found a…
Justice for investors is simply denied in New York courts and a trend of no justice for investors threatens to spread nationwide as more and more “activist” business-friendly judges are appointed to the federal bench. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, known to be friendly…
Three hedge fund companies pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy charges in a Florida Federal Court in a scheme that cost victims nearly $195 million. The defendants included KL Group LLC, Shoreland Trading LLC, and KL Triangulum Management LLC, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a written statement. These companies…
A month ago the SEC rolled out a list of companies officially linked to countries designated by the U.S. Secretary of State as state sponsors of terrorism. The SEC’s published list, which included Halliburton and other large companies, received more than 150,000 Internet hits. It also stirred a firestorm from…
Hartford Financial Services Group will pay $115 million to settle market-timing and broker-compensation charges brought by the Attorney General offices of Connecticut, New York and Illinois. The three state regulators charged that the Hartford insurance unit failed to properly oversee hedge funds that were engaging in market-timing sales of its…
The New Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fine Morgan Stanley $1.5 million and ordered restitution of $4.6 million for overcharging clients on bonds. FINRA is the former NASD, plus the NYSE regulatory unit, and is the primary regulator of the securities industry. FINRA discovered that Morgan Stanley’s retail unit…
MERRILL LYNCH: The firm’s retail brokerage revenues increased 13% to $3.3 billion, and new profits were up 23.7 %. Its broker count rose to 16,200 and it claims “net positive recruiting against all our major competitors, along with its lowest turnover of top producers in years. The firm also reported…
“There are two things I worry about: Clients dying and the government putting me out of business,” said a Merrill Lynch rep who says he gets about 80% of his revenue from B-shares shares and fee-based business. Apparently, the safety of his clients’ assets must be down the list. Meanwhile,…
Former Merrill Lynch employee Hydie Sumner sued that firm saying she was sexually harassed. She was represented by lawyer Linda Freidman. In 2004, a panel of three NASD arbitrators decided Hydie was right and awarded her $2.2 million. They also forced Merrill to reinstate her. Meanwhile, an email was allegedly…