The estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings is claiming that JP Morgan Chase abused its position as a clearing firm when it forced Lehman to give up $8.6 billion in cash reserve as collateral. In its securities fraud lawsuit, Lehman contends that if it hadn’t had to give up the money,…
According to local new services, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is asking five Wisconsin school districts for additional information about the $200+ million in synthetic collateralized debt obligations that they purchased through Stifel Nicolaus and Royal Bank of Canada subsidiaries in 2006. The CDO’s are now reportedlyworthless. The districts…
Upon issuing its largest fine ever, the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority says it is ordering J.P.Morgan Securities Ltd. to pay $48.7 million for breaching Client Money Rules that are there to make sure that financial organizations properly protect clients’ funds. FSA claims that between November 1, 2002 and July…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is fining Piper Jaffray & Co. $700,000 for violations related to the investment bank’s alleged failure to maintain about 4.3 million emails from November 2002 through December 2008 and for neglecting to tell FINRA about the issues it was having with email retention and retrieval.…
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a securities fraud lawsuit against investment firm GTF Enterprises Inc., money manager Gedrey Thompson, and associates Sezzie Goodluck and Dean Lewis. The SEC claims that GTF and Thompson targeted investors from the African-American and Caribbean communities in Brooklyn, NY. The affinity fraud scam…
A jury has ordered Wells Fargo to pay four Minnesota nonprofits $30 million in securities fraud damages. The Minnesota Medical Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Reinsurance Association, and the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children had accused the investment bank of investing their funds in…
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division says that broker-dealers Blake Williams and Derek Lopez are charged with Texas securities fraud involving a number of publicly traded companies. A federal grand jury indictment charged both men with seven counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy…
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. has consented to pay $1.5 million in disgorgement and fines for failing to properly supervise broker Mark Singer and his handling of trust funds belonging to two cemeteries. By agreeing to settle, Citigroup is not denying or admitting to…
The North American Securities Administrators Association is criticizing an amendment introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). SA 4009, an amendment to the Senate financial regulatory reform bill (S. 3217), would protect variable annuities sellers from the fiduciary standard. While her amendment imposes a fiduciary standard on broker-dealers that offer investment…
A number of watchdog groups want Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to support an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that he is sponsoring. The bill lets the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission set up bounty programs for whistleblowers that approach them…