As a former Vice President and registered representative at several major brokerage firms for 20 years, I witnessed Wall Street in action. My assessment of Wall Street is that the majority of the 600,000+ registered representatives at over 5,000 brokerage firms are fairly honest people who seek the best interest…
A U.S. District Court in Indiana entered a permanent injunction against several defendants charged by the SEC over their alleged involvement in a $32 million prime bank scheme. They were also ordered to pay $14 million in disgorgement, plus other sanctions The SEC issued a release saying these defendants, including…
“B Share”, or “back-end load”, mutual fund issues are being reconsidered by The Securities and Exchange Commission. The “B share” nick-name is derived from Rule 12 b-1 of the Investment Company Act of 1949, amended a quarter century ago to allow for the creation of such shares. To combat a…
Barclays Bank PLC and a former proprietary trader for Barclays’ U.S. Distressed Debt Desk agreed to pay a total of $11.69 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges they traded on inside information received while on the creditors committees for six bankrupt companies. Neither admitted or denied the SEC’s…
The order by an administrative law judge barring Bradley T. Smith, the former president of Bancshareholders of America Inc., from the investment adviser and broker-dealer industries has been affirmed by the SEC. Since 2005, Smith has been under a federal court injunction related to private security offerings made by five…
The SEC says it is requesting that the name of Pakistani banker Ajaz Rahim be added to the lawsuit charging the trading in of call options for TXU Corp that were based on insider information regarding an investment group’s leveraged buyout of the entity. The commission filed its third amended…
For decades investors have been told their accounts were protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) without being told what was covered by this insurance. Few realize this protection only provided that whatever securities and cash are in an account when a firm goes out of business would be…
Penthouse International Inc., Charles Samel-a former Penthouse director and executive vice president-and former shareholder Jason Galanis have agreed to settle SEC allegations that they were involved in a revenue recognition scheme. The SEC says the two men took part in accounting and financial reporting violations while at Penthouse in early…
Last week, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. said it would pay a $200,000 fine to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges are connected to Leg Mason Wood Walker Inc’s allegedly improper interference with auction rate securities. Citigroup is LMWW’s merger successor. According to the SEC, the penalty…
After $134 million was found missing from the funds he managed, a flamboyant former professor is now claiming amnesia after being charged with lying to federal investigators. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Charleston, South Carolina, said Al Parish, 49, made false statements and provided false documents to the Securities and…