JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) has consented to pay $388 million to resolve a securities lawsuit filed by investors claiming that the bank misled them about the safety of $10 billion of mortgage-backed securities (MBSs). Included among the plaintiffs in the case are the Laborers Pension Trust Fund for Northern…
OppenheimerFunds Inc. (OPY) is disputing Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla’s contention that the island cannot pay back its $72 billion debt. The New York-based mutual fund company said that based on data about income growth, sales-tax collection, and unemployment, the U.S. territory’s economy can withstand repaying creditors. According to…
Investment adviser Oz Management, LP has agreed to pay a $4.25M penalty to settle SEC charges that it provided inaccurate trading data to four prime brokers. This led to inaccuracies in the books and records of the brokers, including the inaccurate listing of about 552 million shares. Also, the inaccurate…
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has fined LPL Financial (LPLA) $250K to resolve charges that its representatives misrepresented their qualifications when working with older investors. The state’s regulator claims that the brokerage firm approved having brokers use senior-specific titles on their business cards. The titles were not in…
A federal jury has found two men accused of running a financial scam that bilked investors, including several National Hockey League players, of $30 million guilty of money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud. The trial against Phillip Kenner, an Arizona financial adviser, and Tommy Constantine, a former professional race car…
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is charging Securities America with inadequate supervision of a broker who is accused of using a “grossly deceptive” radio ad campaign to target older investors. The state regulator said that the financial firm shouldn’t have approved the spots that Barry Armstrong ran on…
Bloomberg reports that according to sources, the U.S. Department of Justice is getting ready to file securities charges against former employees of Deutsche Bank AG (DB) for manipulating the London interbank offered rate. The government is looking at five ex-traders who may have rigged the U.S. dollar equivalent of the…
U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) introduced a bipartisan bill this week that would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose much higher civil monetary penalties against individuals and financial firms that violate securities laws. The measure is called the Stronger Enforcement of Civil Penalties Act…
Exchange-traded fund manager F-Squared Investments Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. The firm wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to allow it to sell its intellectual property, including its investment strategies and contracts to manage money, to Broadmeadow Capital, a Chicago-based money manager. It was in December…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is filing fraud charges against DFRF Enterprises for running a Ponzi scheme and pyramid scam that targeted investors belonging to Portuguese and Spanish-speaking communities. According to the regulator, the company claimed to run over 50 gold mines in Africa and Brazil even though its revenues…