Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will pay a $50M fine to the New York Federal Reserve as part of a settlement over document leaks. The firm also consented to be barred from some advisory work in the state for three years. It admits that it did not properly supervise an…
Commonwealth William Galvin has filed an administrative complaint against Fidelity Brokerage Services. The firm is accused of letting at least 13 unregistered investment advisers trade on its broker-dealer platform, which caused Fidelity and the advisers to earn fees. This practice, which involved unregistered advisers having their clients turn in trade…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that another five firms must pay restitution to specific retirement and charitable accounts for overcharging them for mutual funds. Edward D. Jones will pay $13.5M, Stifel Nicolaus (SF) will pay $2.9M, AXA Advisors will pay $600K, Janney Montgomery Scott will pay $1.2M, and Stephens…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing 3RedTrading LLC and its owner Chicago broker Igor Oystracher for allegedly engaging in spoofing on some of the largest exchanges in the world. The spoofing purportedly took place over 51 trading days between 12/11 and 1/14 on the Chicago Board Options Exchange,…
Credit Rater Accused of Misrepresenting Surveillance Approach for Complex Securities Credit rating agency DBSR Inc. will pay nearly $6 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges. The regulator is accusing the credit rater of misrepresenting the surveillance method it used for rating certain kinds of complex financial instruments over…
Ex- Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. President Michael Donnelly and the firm’s affiliated broker-dealer will settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing him of bilking brokerage customers and advisory clients of close to $2M. According to the SEC complaint, Donnelly’s 13 victims included unsophisticated investors and older investors belonging to the…
Deutsche Bank Reaches Swaps Violation Settlement with CFTC The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) have reached a settlement over the regulator’s order accusing the firm of not properly reporting its swaps transactions from 1/13 through 7/15. The regulator also said there were supervisory failures and that…
Cash Flow Financial Embroiled in Commodity Pool Ponzi Scam The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that Cash Flow Financial LLC, Alan James Watson, and Michael S. Potts will pay over $91.9 million for their involvement in a commodity pool Ponzi scam. The regulator claims that the defendants fraudulently solicited…
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has adopted new rules mandating that banks collect more collateral, also known as margin, for swaps transactions. This would serve as a type of insurance in the event that trades were to fail. Swaps involve two parties swapping price swing risks in interest rates, currencies,…
Twelve financial firms will pay over $4 million in restitution and fines of over $2.6M for purportedly not applying sales charge discounts to the sale of Unit Investment Trusts. The fines are also for supposed supervisory failures. The firms and the payments they will make include: • First Allied Securities,…