The Securities and Exchange Commission says Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) set up a fee arrangement that charged a fund (as well as its investors) for services that they weren’t actually getting from another party. MSIM has agreed to pay over $3.3M to settle the charges that it violated securities…
The Wall Street Journal reports that in the wake of MF Global Holdings Ltd. filing for bankruptcy protection, about 33,000 of the securities firm’s clients are finding that they can’t access their cash until trustee James Giddens gives them permission. Giddens is the trustee overseeing the liquidation of MF Global…
The AARP has issued a fraud protection bulletin warning investors how to avoid becoming the victim of whoever happens to be peddling the next Ponzi scheme. Unfortunately, older investors are among the favorite prey of financial fraudsters. According Investor Protection Trusts CEO Don Blandin, one in five people in the…
In the biggest municipal bankruptcy in this country to date, Alabama’s Jefferson County has sought Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. The filing comes after the failure of state lawmakers to support an agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and other creditors to lower its over $3B debt tied to a…
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff has ordered Raj Rajaratnam to pay a record $92.8 million penalty for insider trading. This is the largest amount any individual has been ordered to pay for this type of securities fraud. It…
The CFTC has been able to get a permanent injunction and default judgment against former Houston resident Jeffery Alan Lowrance and First Capital Savings and Loan. As restitution for their involvement in an alleged off-exchange foreign currency Ponzi scam, both will pay $1.2 million in restitution and a civil monetary…
Less than a month after UBS Securities, LLC agreed to pay $12M to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims of supervisory failures and violating regulation SHO in securities short sales, the broker-dealer has now consented to an $8M penalty to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges over poor recordkeeping related…
Two Florida men are accused of defrauding investors and broker-dealers by allegedly not telling them that they didn’t have enough money or securities to pay for their stock trades. The US Justice Department is charging Scott Kupersmith with securities fraud and wire fraud, while the Securities and Exchange Commission is…
In Federal District Court today, Judge Jed S. Rakoff expressed concerns about the $285M securities settlement that Citigroup had reached with the Securities Exchange Commission. The financial firm was accused selling $1B in high-risk mortgage-linked collateralized debt obligation that it allegedly knew were at risk of failing. A federal judge…
The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Annabel McClellan has settled for $1M insider trading allegations that she and her husband gave relatives confidential information about merger deals. Annabel is the wife of Arnold McClellan, who used to be a partner at Deloitte Tax LP where he was head of…