Stockbroker Fraud Headlines: Wells Fargo Banker Charged Over $11M Insider Trading, Morgan Stanley to Resolve Facebook IPO Action for $5M, & SEC Accuses Canadian Broker of Inadequate Day Trader Supervision

Wells Fargo Banker and 8 Others Accused of Alleged $8M Insider Trading Scam
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina is charging Wells Fargo (WFC) investment banker John Femenia and eight alleged co-conspirators with involvement in an alleged $11 million insider trading scam. Femenia is accused of stealing confidential data from his employer and its clients about acquisitions and mergers that were pending. He then either directly or via others tipped his co-conspirators, receiving kickbacks in return.

According to the N.C. government, the insider trading scam resulted in $11M in profits. While six of the co-conspirators opted to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit insider trading, Femenia and the other two have been indicted on multiple charges of conspiracy and insider trading. The same defendants, and another person, are also named in the SEC lawsuit over the scheme.

Morgan Stanley to Settle Massachusetts’ Facebook IPO Allegations for $5M
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (MS) will pay $5 million to settle the Massachusetts securities regulator’s allegations that the financial firm’s investment bankers improperly affected research analysts over Facebook Inc.’s (FB) IPO. The financial firm was the initial public offering’s lead underwriter. (It was just in October that Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (C) also settled with the Massachusetts regulator for $2M claims that an analyst acted improperly by making available confidential data about Facebook prior to the latter’s going public.)

Per the allegations, After Facebook’s CFO told a Morgan Stanley senior investment banker that the social media company’s projected revenue might be lower than predicted, the banker supposedly told the CFO to take certain steps to make it seem as if all investors were being given access to this information. This banker also allegedly organized calls with research analysts to give them this new information. The analysts would go on to modify their estimates but only told institutional investors about it.

Canadian Brokerage Firm Agrees to Industry Bar for Alleged Inadequate Day Trader Supervision
Biremis Corp. and its cofounders Charles Kim and Peter Beck agreed to a permanent industry bar for allegedly neglecting to properly supervise overseas day traders who were then able to allegedly use the brokerage firm’s order management system to take part in layering, which is a manipulative trading practice that involves the placing of orders that will not be executed to fool others into trading at an artificial price. The orders are later cancelled.

The Securities and Exchange Commission contends that Biremis, which allows up to 5,000 traders on up to 200 trading floors in 30 nations to access US markets, did not deal with repeated incidents of layering committed by the overseas traders despite the red flags. The brokerage firm, Kim, and Beck have agreed to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission allegations without denying or admitting to the alleged misconduct.

Ex-Wells Fargo Banker Among Nine Hit With Insider Trading, Bloomberg/BNA, December 13, 2012

Mass. fines Morgan Stanley $5M over Facebook IPO, AP/ NECN, December 17, 2012

SEC Revokes Registration of Toronto-Based Broker and Bans Two Executives from U.S. Securities Industry for Allowing Layering, SEC, December 18, 2012

More Blog Posts:
SEC Intends to Examine 25% of Investment Advisers That Had To Register, Per Dodd-Frank Act, by End of 2014, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, December 26, 2012

Investment Advisor Securities Roundup: Two Firms Settle SEC Claims That They Impeded with Examinations, FINRA Defends SRO Model, IA Allegedly Duped Private Equity Investors, & CDO Misrepresentation Accusations Against GSCP Executive Are Dismissed, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, December 10, 2012
GAO Says Most Financial Regulators Don’t Have the Procedures/Policies to Coordinate Dodd-Frank Rules, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, December 24, 2012