SRO Says Brokerage Can Institutional Customers PIP Data About ETPs Under Certain Conditions Financial Industry Regulatory Authority staff have determined that under certain conditions, broker-dealers are permitted to include pre-inception performance information in communications with institutional investors about exchange-traded products, also known as ETPs. Staffers said that FINRA Rule 2210,…
The SEC is suing four traders affiliated with brokerage firm Direct Access Partners for their alleged involvement in a financial scam that involved millions of dollars paid in illicit bribes to a Venezuelan banking official to obtain that bank’s bond trading business. According to the regulator, DAPs’ global markets group…
In Harris County state District Court, two men have received prison terms of a decade each for running a Texas Ponzi scam that involved life insurance policy death benefits. Gregory F. Jablonski and Howard Glen Judah are accused of orchestrating a nearly $30M scam involving their National Life Settlements LLC,…
Ex-Commission Officials, Others Want DC Circuit to Grant Stanford Ponzi Scam Victims SIPC Protection Former SEC Officials, law professors, and trade groups are among those pressing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reject the regulator’s bid to compel Securities Investor Protection Corporation coverage for…
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) has consented to pay $105M to investors of the now failed Medical Capital Holdings Inc. The bank had served as trustee for Medical Capital securities. The medical receivables financing company got about $2.2 billion from thousands of investors between 2001 and 2009 via the private…
Class action securities plaintiffs, led by the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, have settled their mortgage-backed securities lawsuit against Countrywide for $500 million. This is the largest federal class action MBS securities case in the US that has been resolved to date, even exceeding the $315 million settlement reached with…
US Senators John Thune (R-SD), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Tom Coburn (R-Okla) have introduced a bill that would mandate that public pension plans reveal more information about the way they calculate liabilities and assets or place at risk the favorable tax treatment for bonds that are issued by the states…
Bank of America Corp’s (BAC) Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) will pay the state of New Jersey $45 million to settle securities charges that it committed misconduct related to a stock purchase that the latter made in 2008. The investment bank is accused of breaching a contract provision that determined…
In the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC is asking for the dismissal of a US Department of Justice securities fraud lawsuit accusing the ratings firm of knowing that it was issuing faulty ratings to collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed…
Gemstar Capital Group owner Jeffrey J. Sykes has been handed a 10-year federal prison sentence for the $40 million Ponzi scam he ran with ex-Dallas Cowboy Michael Kiselak. Although the former NFL player has not been criminal charged, he was found liable for more than $20 million in 2009 over…