Venecredit Fined $25K for Working with Foreign Finders to Generate Retail Investor Business According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Venecredit Securities must pay a $25,000 fine for allegedly using foreign finders to get new retail investor business. The financial firm has now been censured for two years. The SRO…
Investor Lawyers Blog
Ameriprise Fined $750,000 for Inadequate Supervision of Wire Transfer Requests
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. and American Enterprise Investment Services Inc. $750,000 for failing to properly supervise wire-transfer requests and customer fund transmissions to third parties. Also, the SRO has barred Jennifer Guelinas, an ex-Ameriprise broker, for allegedly forging the signatures of two clients…
New Stream Capital LLC Hedge Fund Executives Face Criminal Securities Fraud Charges
The United States has charged Bart Gutekunst, Richard Pereira, and David Bryson, all New Stream Capital LLC hedge fund executives, with securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. Pereira is New Stream’s former CFO. According to US Attorney David Fein, the defendants ran a securities scam to fool investors so they…
SEC Needs to File Securities Fraud Lawsuits Sooner, Rules the US Supreme Court
In Gabelli v. SEC, the US Supreme Court has decided that in some securities fraud cases, the SEC needs to move faster when it comes to filing its case. The ruling could affect agencies nationwide. In a unanimous decision, the justices sided with two officials of Gabelli Funds LLC, who…
Lure of High Returns Make Retail Investors Easy Targets for Securities Fraud Involving Complex Financial Products
In the wake of the recent financial crisis, retail investors, especially those seeking to save for retirement and who lost much when their stock portfolios and mutual funds dropped, are feeling compelled to get involved in complex products that until recently were targeted to their more sophisticated counterparts. Many want…
Virgin Islands-Based Investment Adviser Faces SEC Fraud Charges Involving Alleged Kickbacks
The Securities Change Commission is charging TAG Virgin Islands owner James S. Tagliaferri with securities fraud. The investment adviser is accused of getting kickbacks from putting investors’ funds in companies that were being thinly traded in and then employing a Ponzi-like scam to give clients their supposed “returns.” According to…
ING Groep NV Broker-Dealers Fined $1.2M by FINRA Over Not Retaining Millions of E-Mails
FINRA is fining Directed Services LLC, ING Investment Advisors LLC, ING Financial Advisers LLC, ING America Equities Inc. and ING Financial Partners Inc. $1.2M for failing to keep or review million of email correspondence between ’04 and ’08. The five broker-dealers are affiliates of ING Groep NV (ING, INGA.AE). According…
New York Fed Bailed Out Bank of America Over Mortgage-Backed Securities Sold to AIG
Recently, a secret deal came to light involving the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bailing out Bank of America (BAC) that released the latter from all legal claims involving mortgage-backed securities losses that the former obtained when the government rescued American International Group (AIG) in 2008. Some believe that…
FINRA Pulls Back on Regulating Registered Investment Advisers
According to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Chief Executive and Chairman Richard Ketchum, the SRO is pulling back from its bid to regulate Regulating Registered Investment Advisers. This move comes after FINRA spent the last couple of years lobbing to become the main regulator for RIAs. However, according to Ketchum, in…
Securities Roundup: Lawmaker Presses SEC to Tackle High-Frequency Trading, Approval of Nasdaq’s Plan to Payback FB IPO Investors is Delayed, & Less Investors Filed Securities Lawsuits Against Corporate Firms in 2012
Lawmaker Presses SEC to Tackle High-Frequency Trading Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission to help stop the allegedly harmful impact of high-frequency trading. Writing to SEC Chairman Elisse Walter and her predecessor Mary Schapiro, Markey talked about how the Market Reform Act of 1990 gives…