In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the SEC has charged three oil services executives that were allegedly involved in a scam to bribe Nigerian customs officials with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. The men are accused of using these payments to seek illicit permits for…
Independent insurance agent Glenn A. Neasham has been convicted for felony theft for selling a complex annuity to an elderly woman who was suffering from dementia. Neasham, who maintains that the woman seemed fine when the transaction was made in 2008, contends and that he acted appropriately. Now, other insurance…
Earlier this month, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro wrote a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) over her concerns that modifications needed to be made to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act to make sure that investor protections are enhanced. The US Senate is heading…
Before US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales joined the military, he had a career as a stock trader. Now, media sources, who have been digging into his background to find out more about the man accused of massacring 16 villagers in Afghanistan, are reporting that the 38-year-old’s stockbroker career ended…
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation are at odds over what the standard of proof should be used for the SEC’s application to make SIPC start liquidation proceedings for Stanford Group Co. The SEC recently sued the non-profit corporation, which is supposed to provide coverage…
The Securities and Exchange Commission says that it has reached a securities settlement in its administrative proceeding against SharesPost. Along with its Chief Executive Officer Greg Brogger, the online platform that serves as a secondary market for pre-IPO shares will pay $100,000 in penalties. According to the SEC, SharesPost was…
AXA Advisors LLC will pay a $100,000 fine to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority allegations that it delayed too long before firing a broker who was also the mastermind of a Ponzi scam. The financial firm turned in a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent prior to there having to…
Batting away criticism that many of the Security and Exchange Commission’s enforcement actions for fiscal year 2011 were actually follow-on administrative proceedings and not new actions, Chairman Mary Schapiro stood by the agency’s record. She also noted that in some instances, follow-ons are key to enforcing federal securities laws. Schapiro…
In a primarily procedural decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Citigroup, which resulted in a proposed $285M securities fred settlement, be stayed pending a joint appeal of U.S. Senior District Judge Jed Rakoff’s ruling that the…
In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Judge James R. Nowlin entered summary judgment against Marleen and John Jantzen. In SEC v. Jansen, the Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the couple with Texas securities fraud for using insider information about Dell Inc. to buy Perot…