Articles Posted in ING Investment Management Co.

Geoffrey Brod, a former Aeltus Investment Management LLC portfolio manager has been charged by the SEC with concealing personal stock trades held by mutual funds that he was overseeing. The SEC is also charging him with falsifying internal reports. According to the SEC, Brod’s wrongful activities are in violation of his company’s ethics, as well as the antifraud and reporting provisions of the 1940 Investment Company Act.

SEC rules mandate that Brod turn in quarterly and yearly reports of personal securities transactions to Aeltus, which mandates pre-clearance of all portfolio managers’ securities trades, prohibits short-term trades, allows no more than 30 securities trades in a quarter, and requires both a 60-day holding period and a yearly certification of code compliance.

Brod is said to have actively taken part in personal, short-term trading in public company stocks. He had access on a regular basis to mutual fund holdings and their transactions in securities that were traded publicly. His method of trading, says the commission, required a very short-term trading pattern, and his holding period lasted about two to seven days. He engaged in about 3,5000 personal trades.