Financial Firms

U.S. Department of Justice Wants Citigroup, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, and Royal Bank of Scotland to Plead Guilty to Criminal Charges In Currency Antitrust Investigation

Published on: February 10, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department is going to try to make four big banks plead guilty to criminal anti-trust charges related to its traders’ alleged collusion in foreign-currency markets. The financial institutions are Citigroup Inc. (C), Barclays PLC (BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and J.P. Morgan Chase & CO. (JPM). Meantime, separate criminal fraud cases are being pursued against the individuals whose involvements are suspected.

The DOJ’s probe is examining whether bank employees manipulated foreign-currency exchange rates to their benefit, and in certain cases, hurting customers. In a separate investigation, New York’s Department of Financial Services is looking at whether some of the biggest banks used computer programs to manipulate foreign exchange rates. The department installed monitors at Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Barclays in 2014 and has sent subpoenas to Goldman Sachs (GS), Société Générale, and BNP Paribas about the way they use these types of programs. The subpoenas were sent not because there was necessarily evidence of wrongdoing but because the banks are actively involved in these markets.

As we mentioned in a recent blog post, JPMorgan has just agreed to pay $99.5 million to settle its portion of a currency rigging case. In that litigation, institutional investors are accusing 12 banks of rigging prices in the foreign exchange market. By settling the financial instruction is not denying or admitting to wrongdoing.

John Carris Investments Expelled by FINRA

Published on: February 9, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A FINRA panel has expelled John Carris Investments LLC, along with Chief Executive Officer George Carris from the securities industry. Bot are accused of suitability violations and fraud.

According to the panel, Carris and JCI were reckless when selling shares of stock and promissory notes. They purportedly left out material facts and used misleading statements. Both have been barred for manipulating Fibrocell’s stock price via the unfunded purchases of big stock blocks and engaging in trading that was pre-arranged through matched limit orders.

The FINRA panel said that JCI and Carris acted fraudulently when they did not reveal the poor financial state of parent company Invictus Capital yet sold the latter’s stock and notes. Material facts were purportedly left out of offering documents. Rather than shutting down operations when it ran out of net capital compliance, JCI kept selling Bridge Offering notes to investors and using money from the sales to remedy its net cap deficiency, all the while not telling customers that was were the money went. Offering sales were also used by Carris to cover his personal spending.

UBS Financial Puerto Rico’s Chairman Told Brokers to Sell More Bond Funds in 2011

Published on: February 7, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Reuters is reporting that in 2011, before the prices of UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico’s (UBS) proprietary bond funds dropped, the firm’s chairman, Miguel Ferrer, told brokers to either start selling more UBS Puerto Rico bond funds or find a new job. He spoke after the brokerage firm’s representatives began to express reservations about selling the bond funds to their customers because of, among other issues, the high risks that were involved.

According to Reuters, sources in the know said that when UBS asked their brokers about their reluctance to sell the funds, they gave Mr. Ferrer and UBS nearly two dozen reasons, including concerns with low liquidity, excessive leverage, instability, oversupply, and because of the concentration of Puerto Rican government debt, which UBS had underwritten.

UBS has come under fire not just for pushing its own funds to clients for whom they were not appropriate, but also for improperly directing some of them to borrow money from another UBS unit to purchase more fund shares. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are reportedly looking into the allegations.

J.P. Morgan Under Scrutiny Over China Hirings

Published on: February 7, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. prosecutors and regulators are probing the Asian hiring practices of J.P. Morgan (JPM) and a number of other banks. The probe focuses on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is a U.S. law that prohibits giving anything of value to foreign government officials in order to gain a business edge.

Hiring employees in order to garner something in return is one area of scrutiny. The WSJ cited the hiring of the son of Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng even though he didn’t do well on job interviews, accidentally sent a sexually explicit email to a human resources employee, and exhibited other traits that purportedly made him a liability. Yet, during job cuts, the bank didn’t let him go and would have given him another position. Hucheng reportedly said that he would “go extra miles” for J.P. Morgan if his son wasn’t laid off.

Although China’s commerce ministry isn’t a client of the firm it has influence over business and is entitled to rule on mergers among multinationals that engage in business in that country. However, both father and son have not been accused of wrongdoing.

JPMorgan Sued by Indiana Church

Published on: February 6, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Christ Church Cathedral of Indianapolis is suing JPMorgan (JPM) for securities fraud. The church contends that the financial firm purposely mismanaged its money over the last ten years, causing $13 million in losses. Eli Lilly, the founder of pharmaceutical giant of the same name, gifted a large trust fund to the Episcopal congregation. Mr. Lilly appointed three local banks as trustees but JPMorgan became involved after it acquired two of the banks in 2004.

Court filings claim that once JPMorgan came on board the church’s portfolio of stocks and bonds were replaced by the firm’s own funds, including alternative investments, which involve higher fees paid to the firm. Over eight years the firm’s management fees went up from $35K to $177K, while it reaped in additional fees for selling proprietary products. By the close of 2009, the church was invested in over 50 investment funds— 75% of those were in the firm’s own products.

In 2004, when the firm took over the church’s trust fund, the congregation had $34.6 million. By the end of 2013 it had $31.6 million. Because of this, the congregation has been unable to do all of its charitable works. The church believes that its investment strategy should have let it take money from its endowment to fund its aid work without losing any money. The Christ Church Cathedral of Indianapolis wants JPMorgan to pay back the $13 million losses, which includes lost profits.

UBS Under Scrutiny in New Tax Evasion Probe

Published on: February 4, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

U.S. prosecutors have opened a new investigation into whether UBS AG (UBS) helped Americans avoid paying taxes via investments that were banned in the country. The government is looking at whether the Swiss bank used bearer securities, which may be used as if they were cash. These securities were phased out of the financial system in the U.S. more than thirty years ago because they can be used in money laundering and tax evasion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, not only are prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn looking at evidence of whether bank employees played a role in allowing securities fraud and tax evasion to happen, but also they are seeking proof that there may have been a criminal cover up internally. A whistleblower is involved in this latest probe.

In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to resolve a tax evasion investigation by the Department of Justice. The Swiss bank admitted that it encouraged this type of conduct. As part of the settlement it disclosed the identities of 250 American banking clients. It settled another U.S. lawsuit in which it revealed the names of 4,450 U.S clients with UBS accounts.

Oppenheimer to Pay $20M Settlement to the SEC and FinCEN Over Penny Stock Violations

Published on: January 28, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY) has consented to pay $20 million to resolve settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The firm is accused of not properly identifying and reporting suspect trades in penny stocks. The low priced, highly speculative securities are easy to manipulate and involve in pump-and-dump scams.

At least 16 Oppenheimer customers in several U.S. states were reportedly identified as having engaged in “suspicious activity.” Admitting guilt, the broker-dealer acknowledged that it did not set up and implement a proper anti-money laundering program nor did it perform sufficient due diligence on a foreign correspondent account. Oppenheimer also said that it failed to comply with the USA PATRIOT Act’s Section 311, which allows FinCEN’s director to decide whether a foreign financial firm is a money laundering risk.

The government agency said that because Oppenheimer did not notify its foreign correspondent financial institutions of the special measures under Section 311, the firm ended up conducting business without setting up the necessary procedures, policies, and internal controls that allow it to reasonably report and detect suspect fraud activity from ’08 to ’14.

FINRA Fines Fidelity $350K for Overcharging More than 20,000 Clients $2.4M

Published on: January 20, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that Fidelity Investments must pay $350,000 for overcharging thousands of clients $2.4 million for transactions involving fee-based accounts in its Institutional Wealth Services Group. The overcharges are said to have occurred from 1/06 to 9/13. The group offers brokerage and trading services to investment advisers and their clients.

According to the self-regulatory organization, the inappropriate charges happened because of a supervisory oversight involving the way that Fidelity applies fees under its asset-based pricing model. The model typically charges according to assets, not transactions.

FINRA says that until 2013, the financial firm did not have a designated supervisory principal to oversee the group’s asset-based pricing program. As a result, a number of clients may have been charged excess commissions beyond the asset-based management fee or were double billed.

UBS Settles SEC Dark Pool Case for $14M

Published on: January 16, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A UBS AG (UBS) subsidiary has consented to pay $14.4 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the firm committed violations involving the marketing and operation of its dark pool. The subsidiary, UBS Securities LLC, is accused of placing some players at an advantage in its alternative trading system the UBS ATS, which is the second largest dark pool in the United States.

According to the regulator, the Swiss bank failed to adequately disclose the way the dark pool worked to all of its clients, which allowed only some investors to know all of its rules. The SEC said that beginning in 2008 and into 2012, UBS let customers turn in orders at prices with denominations under a penny even though market rules dictate that all orders cannot be in any denomination below one cent.

UBS pitched the PrimaryPegPlus (PPP) order type, which let traders sell and purchase securities at the under the one cent increment prices, primarily to market makers and high-frequency trading firms. This let them get in front of orders that were made at the legal, whole-penny prices.

JPMorgan Suspends Forex Trader for Alleged Disclosures Involving Royal Bank of Scotland-Related Activities

Published on: January 14, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Bloomberg is reporting that according to a source, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) has suspended currency dealer Gordon Andrew for alleged wrongdoing involving his work at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. (RBS). According to The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter say that the firm discovered evidence that Andrew disclosed trading data to employees of other banks. The forex trader does a lot of work converting huge amounts of euros into pounds at benchmark rates related to subsidies that the EU pays to British farmers every year.

Andrew began working for JPMorgan in October 2012 after Richard Usher, an RBS colleague, also switched to the firm. Usher was JPMorgan’s chief currency dealer in London until 2013 when he was put on leave during a global probe into foreign exchange market manipulation. He left the firm the following year. Regulators in the U.K. and the U.S. have since fined JPMorgan $1 billion related to the rigging probe. RBS was ordered to pay a $634 million fine.

Today, the WSJ reported that the probes into currency market manipulation have led to new signs of possible wrongdoing. Sources tell the newspaper that JPMorgan has even put aside another $900 million to cover investigation-related costs as well as legal bills. Meantime, broker-dealer Tullett Prebon PLC (TLPR) has started an internal review into its currency market practices. One of its brokers was allegedly referred to as a trade conduit in one chat room. That broker still works for the firm. In 2014, British fraud prosecutors charged an ex-Tullet broker with assisting other bank traders in manipulating trades.