Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY) has consented to pay $20 million to resolve settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The firm is accused of not properly identifying and reporting suspect trades in penny stocks. The low priced, highly speculative securities are easy to…
Bloomberg News is reporting that according to a memo drafted by President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jason Furman, the White House may be pushing for tighter oversight over brokers who deal with retirement accounts. Furman noted that research shows that excessive trading, increased commissions, and other broker practices…
A FINRA panel has expelled John Carris Investments LLC, along with Chief Executive Officer George Carris from the securities industry. Both are accused of suitability violations and fraud. According to the panel, Carris and JCI were reckless when selling shares of stock and promissory notes. They purportedly left out material…
The New York City Retirement Systems and TIAA-CREF have joined other institutional investors in suing . They contend that the real estate investment trust violated federal securities laws when it allegedly made misleading and false statements that misrepresented the company’s business, as well as took part in a scam to…
Ex-Capital Data One Analysts Are Defendants in SEC Insider Trading Lawsuit The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Nan Huang and Bonan Huang, two former Capital One data analysts, for insider trading. The regulator contends that the two of them used nonpublic data to trade in consumer retail companies’…
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld the securities fraud conviction of George Georgiou. The ex-Canadian broker was convicted of U.S. stock manipulation involving brokerage accounts in his native country and international locations. Georgiou, who appealed the conviction, said that under the U.S. Supreme Court…
Alberto Alba Villareal was sentenced to five years behind bars for defrauding investors in a $1 million Texas securities fraud. Villareal was convicted of theft of property for stealing money. The funds he procured were supposed to go toward funding a new insurance company. The Texas State Securities Board was…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules mandating that security-based swap data repositories register with the regulator. They also prescribe public dissemination and reporting requirements for security-based swap transaction information. The rules were mandated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s Title VII and they are…
SEC Accuses Elm Tree Investment Advisors, its Founder, of $17M Securities Fraud The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against Elm Tree Investment Advisors LLC and its founder Frederic Elm for running a Florida-based securities scam that raised over $17 million in a little over a year. The…
Standard & Poor’s has agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the credit rating agency of fraudulent misconduct when rating certain commercial mortgage-backed securities. As part of the settlement, S & P will pay close to $80 million—$58 million to resolve the regulator’s case, plus $12 million…