The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington says that King County, Washington has pleaded sufficient facts to continue with its securities fraud lawsuit accusing Merrill Lynch, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Inc. and Merrill Lynch Money Markets Inc. of facilitating its purchase of allegedly toxic mortgage-backed…
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed Standard Investment Chartered Inc.’s lawsuit against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, New York Stock Exchange Group Inc., and NASD over alleged misstatements in a proxy to obtain member approval for bylaw changes that ultimately resulted in the creation of…
To settle securities fraud complaints by investors that bought private placements in Provident Royalties and Medical Capital through its independent-brokerage unit Securities America, Ameriprise Financial Inc. will pay $27 million. It was just two weeks ago that Securities America agreed to pay $21 million to settle the same class of…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts says that, under the 1934 Securities Exchange Act and the Massachusetts’ Uniform Securities Act, Akamai Technologies Inc.’s (AKAM) auction-rate securities lawsuit that seeks to hold Deutsche Bank AG liable for $200 million in losses can proceed. The judge ruled that the…
In its latest 10-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says that its “reasonably possible” losses from legal claims may be as high as $3.4 billion. The investment bank’s admission comes after the SEC told corporate finance chiefs that the should disclose losses “when…
According to Bloomberg, Morgan’s Stanley‘s network experienced a cyber break-in. The culprits were hackers based in China that broke into Google Inc.’s computers over a year ago. The break-in is documented in e-mails stolen from HBGary Inc, a cyber-security company that works for the investment bank. Known as the Operation…
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that JP Morgan Chase & Co., in its yearly Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said it may be facing up to $4.5 billion in legal losses over the losses it accounts for in its established litigation reserves. The SEC had asked for this additional…
Joseph Shereshevsky, the ex-COO of Wextrust Capital LLC (Wextrust), has pled guilty to securities fraud, conspiracy and mail fraud charges over his involvement in a $255 million dollar affinity fraud scam. Shereshevsky entered his guilty plea in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He and…
An indictment has been unsealed today accusing six people of securities fraud in a stock manipulation scam that bilked investors between 2003 and 2008. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a civil complaint related to this case. The defendants are securities attorney Michael Simon Krome, Jonathan Randall Curshen,…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is ordering Merrill Lynch, a Bank of America Corp. unit, to pay a $500,000 fine over alleged oversight failures involving 529 plans, a college-savings product. Merrill Lynch has also been censured by FINRA in a disciplinary action. According to the SRO, Merrill Lynch lacked the…