Eaton Vance Management says that five of the closed-end management investment companies that it advises have each received a demand letter on behalf of a putative common shareholder of the “Trusts” alleging breach of fiduciary duty related to the redemption of auction preferred securities after the auction markets failed in…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel says that Raymond James and financial advisor Larry Milton must pay Sherese and Rex Glendenning $925,000 over an auction-rate securities dispute. This is the third time this summer that Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE: RFJ) subsidiaries have been involved in an ARS dispute that…
Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America‘s former chief executive, says that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s securities fraud allegations in connection with the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch are without merit. Lewis is accused of purposely withholding information from the shareholders who approved Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill.…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered Zions Direct Inc., Zions Bancorp’s (ZION) brokerage unit, to pay $225,000 to settle securities fraud allegations that it failed to disclose conflicts of interest in online certificate-of-deposits auctions. According to the SRO, from February 2007 to November 2008, the Utah broker-dealer failed to…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the North American Securities Administrators Association have updated their 2008 report regarding financial firms’ best practices when serving elderly investors. The security regulators remain committed to making sure that seniors are given a “fair market” with responsible sales practices…
A group of investors that lost over $17 million after a Plano-based hedge fund that promised low risk investments collapsed are suing Ernst & Young for Texas securities fraud. Parkcentral Global sold the two funds involved. According to the Houston securities fraud complaint, although E & Y was auditing Parkcentral,…
HSBC Securities has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that it recommended the unsuitable sale of inverse floating rate collateralized mortgage obligation to retail clients. The SRO is also accusing the investment bank HSBC of inadequate supervision of the suitability of the CMO sales and…
On August 19, 2010, along with other news sources, we published a story regarding investment fraud victims of John Gardner Black. Mr. Black subsequently protested that ours and other stories published concerning him were inaccurate. Below are the inaccuracies he reports, verbatim, regarding ours and apparently other publications which concern…
Oppenheimer Champion Income Fund (OPCHX; OCHBX; OCHCX; OCHNX; OCHYX) plummeted 82% overall making it the worst performing taxable high yield bond fund of 2008. The investors believed they were in a conservative high yield fund when in fact they were exposed to illiquid derivatives and high risk mortgage backed securities.…
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has agreed to settle for $2.5 million Financial Industry Regulatory Authority allegations that it did not provide “sales charge discounts” to clients with eligible unit investment trusts purchases. By agreeing to settle, the broker-dealer is not admitting to or denying the charges. Of the $2.5…