FINRA Accuses Ex-Broker of Unsuitable Trading Involving Mutual Funds David Randall Lockey, a former broker, is facing Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges for allegedly engaging in improper trading of customer accounts while associated with SWS Financial Services Inc. He is no longer with that firm, now called the Hilltop Securities…
The SEC and G. Steven Burrill have reached an agreement to settle charges accusing the biotech venture capitalist of taking money from a fund overseen by his firm to pay for his expensive lifestyle and help support his other businesses. Burrill is accused of hiding from investors that he siphoned…
Federal prosecutors are charging Ross McClellan and Edward Pennings with securities fraud and wire fraud. McLellan was formerly with State Street Corp.’s (STT) brokerage firm unit in the US and Pennings worked for the bank in London. According to the government, the two men secretly charged six clients excess commissions…
New Jersey adviser John Bivona is facing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing him of raising over $53M from investors in a Ponzi-like scam that involved the selling of investments in pre-IPO tech companies. However, contends the SEC, instead of investing the funds as intended, he used investor money…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Andrew W.W. Caspersen and shell entity Irving Place III SPV, LLC with defrauding two institutional investors, including a non-profit charitable affiliate of an investment limited partnership. Caspersen is a securities professional associated with a registered brokerage firm. He also is one of…
Robert Lunn, the financial adviser who bilked former NBA star Scottie Pippen, has been sentenced to three years behind bars. Lunn was convicted in 2014 of multiple counts of bank fraud. According to prosecutors, he obtained $3M in loans from Leaders Bank, $1.4M of which he claimed was for Pippen…
Former JPMorgan Broker Who Stole Over $20M from Richest Clients, Gambled, Goes to Prison Michael Oppenheim, a former broker with JPMorgan Chase & CO. (JPM), has been sentenced to five years behind bars. Oppenheim pleaded guilty last year to stealing over $20 million from 10 of his richest clients. At…
Former AIG Affiliate Brokerage Firms to Pay $7.5M Fine, $2M Restitution Over High-Priced Mutual Funds Royal Alliance Associates, FSC Securities Corp., and SagePoint Financial have agreed to pay over $9.5M to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing them of guiding clients toward expensive mutual fund share classes so that…
Banc de Binary Ltd. has settled a fraud lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the SEC accusing the Cypriot financial trading company of illegally signing American investors to join its binary options trading program. According to the regulators, from 2011 and 2013, Banc de Binary pursued and took…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is barring Nicholas Rowe, the former owner of registered investment advisor Focus Capital Wealth Management, from the industry. The charges come in the wake of parallel proceedings in New Hampshire where state regulators barred him from being licensed as an investment adviser. The New…