In Texas, a US district court judge has refused to dismiss a class action securities fraud claim against Cushing MLP Total Return Fund CEO Jerry V. Swank and CFO Mark Fordyce. The Texas securities fraud claim accuses the defendants of misrepresentations and omissionsrelated to the fund’s deferred tax asset. Other…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lifetime bar against a former Southwest Securities Inc. stockbroker. Scott Gann, who allegedly committed Texas securities fraud, is no longer allowed to associate with dealers, investment advisers, and brokers. The SEC imposed the permanent…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of LSF5 Bond Holdings LLC and Lone Star Fund V (U.S.) L.P.’s $60 million securities fraud claims against Barclays Capital Inc. and Barclays Bank PLC. The court noted that Barclays never represented that the mortgage pass-through certificates…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges accusing Austin investment adviser Kurt B. Barton and his two firms, Triton Insurance and Triton Financial, of committing Texas securities fraud and raising over $8.4 million from about 90 investors. Former football stars were used as bait to target former NFL players…
Earlier this month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission was able to get a temporary restraining order to the freeze the assets of Joseph Blimline, the fourth person accused of masterminding a $485 million Ponzi scheme involving Provident Royalties LLC. The SEC charged three other individuals, Brendan Coughlin, Paul Melbye,…
Denise Voigt Crawford, the Texas securities commissioner and current North American Securities Administrators Association president, says it isn’t evident that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has implemented key reforms to the issues that allowed the agency to fail to detect Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme for almost 20…
Joseph Hirko, the ex-Enron Broadband Chief Executive Officer, has been sentenced to a prison term of 16 months for Texas securities fraud. Hirko pleaded guilty to wire fraud a year ago for giving out false information to improve Enron’s financial figures. The former Enron Broadband CEO and others knew that…
A judge has ordered a former Merrill Lynch employee, San Antonio stockbroker Bruce E. Hammonds, to serve almost five years in prison and three years supervised release for Texas securities fraud. Bruce E. Hammonds also must pay $1.1 million in restitution to the Merrill Lynch investors he defrauded and almost…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging trader Reza Saleh with Texas securities fraud. The agency is accusing the Perot Systems employee of buying call options contracts just two weeks before Dell announced it was acquiring the services company. The SEC says that as a result of insider trading, Saleh…
The incoming head of the North American Securities Administrators Association, Denise Voigt Crawford, is warning brokerage firms that more enforcement actions over Wall Street fraud are likely to follow. Crawford is also the Texas Securities Commissioner. She will formally assume her role as NASAA president on September 15. In her…