The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has banned ex-Success Trade Securities Inc. broker Jinesh “Hodge” Brahmbhatt from the industry. The broker is accused of selling over $18 million in fraudulent promissory notes to 58 investors, which included many National Football League and National Basketball Association athletes. Brahmbhatt’s registered investment adviser firm…
SEC Issues Small Entity Compliance Guide The Securities and Exchange Commission has put out a small entity compliance guide that explains the new forms and rules involved with the municipal advisers registration regime. Issued in September, the rules and forms implement the Dodd-Frank Act’s Section 975, which mandates that municipal…
RBS Securities Inc., which is a Royal Bank of Scotland PLC. Subsidiary (RBS), has agreed to pay $150 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors in a $2.2 billion subprime residential mortgage-backed security offering in 2007. The money will be used to pay back investors…
At a recent event hosted by the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Roosevelt Institute, US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) called on the Obama Administration to break up Wall Street’s biggest banks. She also chastised regulators for not dealing with financial institutions that cannot fail because they are just…
After months of back-and-forth, the US Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) have agreed to a $13 billion settlement. The historic deal concludes several of lawsuits and probes over failed mortgage bonds that were issued prior to the economic crisis. It also is the largest combination of damages and fines…
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Halliburton v. Erica John Fund. In it, the Texas-based multinational corporation is appealing a class action securities lawsuit that tests the fraud-on-the market theory. That doctrine became part of securities law in 1988 after the highest court’s ruling in Basic v. Levinson.…
In a 3-to-11 vote, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chose to favor restricting the size of any traders’ footprint in the commodities market. This is the CFTC’s second vote on a proposal over “position limit” rules. A rule that it proposed two years ago was turned down by the United…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing securities fraud charges against Wendy Ko and Yin Nan Wang and certain entities over their alleged involvement in a Ponzi-like scam. The regulator is asking for an asset freeze against Velocity Investment Group, its managed funds, and Rockwell Realty Management, Inc. These entities…
According to The Wall Street Journal, hedge funds are starting to bet big on municipal debt by demanding high interest rates in exchange for financing local governments, purchasing troubled municipalities’ debt at cheap prices, and attempting to profit on the growing volatility (in the wake of so many small investors…
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has rejected Thomson Reuters (Markets) LLC’s motion to have a whistleblower retaliation case dismissed. Instead, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule that a whistleblower doesn’t have to tell the regulator to be able…