The Wall Street Journal and other media are reporting that Theranos is now the defendant of a securities fraud lawsuit brought by one of its major investors. The plaintiff is San Francisco hedge fund Partner Fund Management, which is one of the blood testing company’s largest financial backers. Partner, which…
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) subsidiary RBS Securities Inc. will pay the state of Connecticut $120M to settle allegations related to its dealings with mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. According to state officials, RBS played a part in the crisis when it neglected to do the…
Texas-Based Brokerage Firm Accused of Inadequate Supervision Involving VA Exchanges The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is ordering IMS Securities Inc. to pay a $100K fine. The Texas-based brokerage firm is accused of failures related to its monitoring of variable annuity exchanges. By settling, however, it is not denying or…
New Proposed Amendment Would Shorten Period for Settling Securities Transactions The SEC has voted to propose a rule amendment that would abbreviate the typical length of a settlement cycle period for the majority of broker-dealer securities transactions. Instead of having this period run from three business day following the…
A Cetera Financial Group network brokerage firm will pay $1.1M in fines and restitution related to its sale of unit investment trusts. The broker-dealer is Investors Capital Corp. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in 74 clients’ accounts, certain advisers recommended steepener notes, as well as short-term trading…
SEC Charges Hawaii-Based Investment Adviser for Misleading Clients and Cherry Picking The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against Oracle Investment Research, which is based in Hawaii, and its owner Laurence I. Balter. The regulator claims that the investment adviser cherry picked trades that were profitable for…
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing an insider trading case in which a man convicted of the crime is disputing that decision. Bassam Salman claims that he should not have been convicted of insider trading and that the trading he engaged in was not illegal. Salman made nearly $1.2M…
Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) has admitted wrongdoing and will pay a penalty of $90 M to the SEC settle civil claims accusing the firm of misrepresenting how much it brought into its wealth management business. According to the regulator’s probe, Credit Suisse strayed from its methodology for figuring out…
Sethi Petroleum Inc. and its founder Sameer P. Sethi are asking a federal judge to send the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud case against it to trial. Sethi Petroleum is based in Dallas, Texas. The regulator had sought summary judgment in the Texas lawsuit, which accuses Sethi Petroleum and…
Massachusetts claims that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) ran a high-pressure sales contest to give its financial advisers incentive to get clients to borrow funds against their brokerage accounts. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin filed the complaint against the firm. According to the state, from 1/14 through…