According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Ameriprise Financial (AMP) broker Lorene Fairbanks, formerly with Merrill Lynch. Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, was recently sanctioned over allegations that she effected over 57 discretionary transactions for several customers without getting the required written authorization from the clients or the approval…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against California Attorney Richard Weed, Coleman Flaherty, and Thomas Brazil. The regulator contends that Weed facilitated a pump and dump scam involving CitySide Tickets Inc. stock that allowed Flaherty and Brazil to get millions of supposedly unrestricted shares. Investors were barraged…
More broker-dealers are suspending their sale of Nicholas Schorsch-affiliated nontraded real estate investment trusts. The suspensions are coming in the wake of the announcement of a $23 million accounting error involving American Reality Capital Properties Inc., which is the traded REIT under Schorsch’s control. Even after the error was found…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging the Detroit, Michigan suburb of Allen Park with fraud involving a municipal bond sale that was supposed to finance a movie studio project. Also charged with municipal bond fraud are ex-city Mayor Gary Burtka and former City Administrator Eric Waidelich. All three…
According to the Irving Firemen’s Relief and Retirement Fund, Tesco PLC and its directors misled investors, purportedly causing the Texas pension fund to buy the company’s stock at prices that were artificially inflated. Because of this, says the fund, it sustained substantial losses when Tesco announced in September that it…
The wealth-management arm of Morgan Stanley (MS) has set aside $50 million to pay back clients who didn’t get prospectuses after buying certain securities. The firm recently realized that a number of electronic prospectuses were never delivered to clients this year, as well as last. Brokerages are required to send…
According to sources, an announcement is expected this week regarding the sale of UBS Puerto Rico’s (UBS-PR) mutual funds operations to BlackRock Asset Management (BLK). The move, say sources, is part of the Swiss giant’s strategy to exit the island. To date, investors have filed nearly $1 billion in securities…
The U.S. Department of Justice has begun a criminal probe into the foreign exchange businesses of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). The investigations come in the wake of allegations that banks in the United States and abroad manipulated key reference rates in the foreign exchange currency markets. On Monday,…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sanctioned thirteen financial firms, including UBS Financial Services (UBS), Charles Schwab and Co. (SCHW), J.P. Morgan Securities (JPM), and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. (SF), for the improper sales of Puerto Rican junk bonds. A $100,00 minimum denomination had been established in junk bonds of…
National Planning Holding, a broker-dealer network, says that it has temporarily stopped offering American Realty Capital Properties Inc.’s (ARCP) non-traded real estate investment trusts for sale. The move comes after the real estate investment trust, run by Nicholas Schorsch, disclosed a $23 million accounting mistake. American Realty Capital is the…