The US Securities and Exchange Commission has countered the motion to dismiss its securities fraud case against two former JP Morgan Chase (JPM) executives. The SEC had charged defendants Douglas MacFaddin and Charles LeCroy with paying the friends of Jefferson County, Alabama commissioners $8.2 million to garner $5 billion in…
Claimant Leonard Claus was awarded $25,000 by a National Association of Securities Dealers’ arbitration panel for his Texas securities arbitration claim. Claus had made a verbal agreement with Jerry Short, who worked for Institutional Capital Management Inc. over the sale and purchase of bonds. Clause, who bought the bonds, was…
As part of a deal to settle ARS insider trading allegations by New York Attorney General Attorney Cuomo, former UBS AG executive David Shulman has agreed to pay $2.75 million. Shulman is accused of finding out through nonpublic, material information that the investment bank’s student loan auction rate securities program…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel has ordered Morgan Keegan & Co. to pay investor Andrew Stein $2.5 million because the bond funds that he invested in had bet poorly on mortgage-related holdings. Panel members found Morgan Keegan liable for failure to supervise, negligence, and for selling investments that were…
The National Futures Association has accepted Frontline Advisors LLC and Frontline Financial, Inc.’s proposal to permanently remove themselves as a member of the group. The Texas-based Commodity Trading Advisors and Commodity Pool Operators offered the settlement after the NFA filed a complaint against them in 2009 accusing FFI and principal…
Our securities fraud lawyers are looking into claims by investors regarding their purchase of reverse convertible notes from H&R Block Financial Advisors. Just this week, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority imposed a $200,000 fine on the broker-dealer for failing to set up proper supervisory systems over RCN sales. H &…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined H&R Block Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise Advisor Services) $200,000 for failing to put in place the proper system to supervise its reverse convertible notes (RCN) sales to retail clients. FINRA also suspended H & R broker Andrew MacGill for 15 days while…
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) has agreed to pay $150 million, in addition to $1 million in disgorgement, to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges over the investment bank’s proxy-related disclosures regarding the Merrill Lynch acquisition. U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said he hopes to decide by February…
A jury has convicted Phillip Windom Offill Jr. of Texas securities fraud. The Dallas lawyer and former SEC trial attorney was found guilty of nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy for his involvement in a “pump and dump” scam that sold nine companies’ unregistered securities to…
At a closed-door meeting scheduled for February 10, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority board of governors will preside over a closed-door meeting to assess allegations made by Amerivet Securities Inc. that certain FINRA executives, including chief executive Mary Schapiro, received excessive pay. The brokerage firm submitted a letter to the…