Articles Posted in Securities Fraud

Judge Sidney H. Stein of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dropped the securities fraud violation charges against three ex-traders. The nolle prosequi orders conclude the Justice Department’s probe, began in 2005, against 15 New York Stock Exchange specialists for securities fraud violations. Stein set aside the guilty pleas of Van der Moolen USA LLC specialists Patrick McGagh and Joseph Bongiorno, while prosecutors dropped criminal charges against former LaBranche & Co. LLC specialist Freddy DeBoer.

The government had indicted the specialists on claims that they engaged in certain stock-selling practices to defraud investors. In November 2006, however, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia announced that five the specialists would not be prosecuted. Also in 2006, charges against two of the defendants were dropped while two others were acquitted.

Three specialists were convicted in district court. However, this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed all three convictions. The latest decisions mean that the government was not able to sustain even one criminal action it had filed against the 15 defendants.

In the 2005 indictment, McGagh and Bongiorno were charged with federal securities violations. They were accused of using their positions to defraud investors, including 15,620 instances of interpositioning to generate illegal profits over $1.38 million, causing over 8,630 instances of trading ahead, and causing over $1.36 million in customer harm. McGagh was also accused of causing more than 21,290 instances of interpositioning that led to illegal profits of over $3.43 million, over 4,200 instances of trading ahead, and over $1.24 million in customer harm.

Specialists match sellers and buyers at the NYSE. When there is an imbalance on the floor, they sell and buy shares.

More Guilty Pleas Vacated In Probe of NYSE Trading, Wall Street Journal Continue Reading ›

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered a Connecticut man to pay $58,825 in civil penalties, prejudgment interest, and disgorgement to settle charges he engaged in a scheme to take part in unauthorized securities trades, which caused prices to rise dramatically.

The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Joshua Eudowe, who worked at a brokerage firm owned by his stepfather, Lawrence Goldstein, was not a registered representative but was brought in to help with marketing and research efforts.

In 2006, the SEC says that he made several unauthorized purchases of CreditRiskMonitor.com Inc. and FRMO Corp. stocks in client accounts of investment partnerships managed by his stepfather. Eudowe also is accused of hacking into the company Web site and using Goldstein’s password to engage in unauthorized securities trades without permission.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District has dismissed a securities fraud lawsuit filed by investor Nicholas Vale against ex-Merrill Lynch Internet Group head Henry Blodget on the grounds that Vale failed to factually show how the defendant’s fraud caused his investment losses.

In his lawsuit, Vale accused Blodget of issuing bogus positive reports about Internet Capital Group Inc. and B2B Internet HOLDRs, an exchange traded fund. He says that he depended on reports by Blodget and Merrill Lynch when he bought almost 3,000 ICGE stock shares for about $300,000 in 1999 and he would not have bought the shares if not for Blodget’s reputation as a research analyst.

In 2002, the New York State Attorney General’s Office accused Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., and Blodget of regularly issuing false or misleading recommendations about Internet-based stocks to try and increase the firm’s underwriting business. Merrill Lynch settled the allegations with a $100 million fine. Vale, who says that he suffered major losses after selling the shares in 2000, is one of a large number of investors that have filed lawsuits accusing Merrill Lynch and Blodget of securities fraud.

Wood Rivers Partners LP Founder John Whittier has been ordered to serve 36 months in federal prison. The former hedge fund manager pled guilty to charges that he defrauded investors of about $88 million over a two-year-period.

Whittier admitted to deceiving investor clients and making them think that he would keep risks low while he employed diverse investment strategies. Prosecutors also say that Whittier lied when he told investors that the hedge fund they had invested in was being audited.

Instead, Whittier placed about 80% of the assets in his Wood River US hedge fund portfolio, worth $127 million, into one stock, called Endwave. In doing so, he was in breach of his investors’ trust.