Investment Adviser Settles SEC Case for $575K John W. Rafal, a Connecticut-based investment adviser, has agreed to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission charges for $575K. As part of the settlement, Rafal is admitting wrongdoing in a civil case that accuses him of bilking a client and then trying to…
Articles Posted in Financial Firms
President-Elect Trump’s SEC Chief Pick Has Strong Ties to Big Banks
News that President-Elect Donald Trump has nominated Wall Street defense attorney Jay Clayton as the next of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair is causing worries that a person who has legally represented big banks may soon be in charge of the agency of the federal government that is tasked with…
Ex-MF Global CEO Jon Corzine Settles Securities Fraud Case Brought by the CFTC for $5M
Jon S. Corzine, the former head of MF Global Inc. has arrived at a securities settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in which he will pay a $5M penalty for his involvement in the firm’s illegal use of nearly $1B in customer money and for not properly supervising…
Retiree Files $1M Securities Arbitration Claim Against Morgan Stanley
An investor who is retired and suffering from health issues is seeking $1M from Morgan Stanley (MS). The investor, a former inventor, claims that the broker-dealer did not properly supervise the financial adviser who handled his multi-million dollar account. He filed a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claim and is accusing…
Refusal to Testify Before Finra Over Securities Allegations Lead to Industry Bars for Former Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, and JP Morgan Brokers
The Financial Industry Regulatory has barred a broker who worked at Merrill Lynch for almost half a century from the securities industry. Louise J. Neale left the broker-dealer and voluntarily ended her registration with the firm last year during an internal probe about her supervisory performance involving fund transactions. She…
$335M Mortgage-Backed Securities Settlement for PSERS, Other Institutional Investors is Approved in Class Action Lawsuit Against Bank of America
US District Court Judge William Pauley III has approved a $335M settlement in a securities fraud case against Bank of America (BAC). This one of the largest class action settlements involving securities buyer claims related to the 2008 financial crisis. Among the investors that will be able to avail of…
UBS Broker is Fired Over Outside Business Activities
UBS Financial Services (UBS) has terminated the employment of Connecticut broker Phil Fiore Jr. The broker-dealer says that even while Fiore was under heightened supervision he did not tell the firm about his outside business activities. UBS contends that he violated firm policies, such as not disclosing that he was serving…
Merrill Lynch, UBS, & Morgan Stanley Are Among Firms Ordered to Pay Investors Approximately $30M Collectively Over Puerto Rico Bond Fund Losses in 2016
Even after more than three years since the Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds originally dropped in their initial value, many investors are still waiting to recoup losses they sustained from investing in these securities. Meantime, the U.S. territory continues to deal with its financial woes as it struggles to…
Mortgage Fraud Settlements Reached With Deutsche Bank for $7.2B, Credit Suisse for $5.3B
The US government has arrived at multibillion-dollar settlements with Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) to settle allegations involving toxic securities. It also has filed a separate lawsuit against Barclays (BARC) over its alleged sales of toxic mortgage-backed securities. In the Deutsche Bank case, the US…
Whistleblower Cases: SEC Issues Almost $1MK Award to Another Tipster, JPMorgan is Defendant in IRS Whistleblower Case Involving Pension Funds, and Prudential Stops Selling Certain Term Life Insurance Policies Through Wells Fargo Following Employees’ Lawsuit
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that it has awarded a whistleblower over $900K for a tip that allowed the regulator to bring multiple enforcement actions. The regulator announced the award just a days after it awarded another whistleblower $3.5M, also for coming forward with information resulting in an…