Stifel Financial Corp says that subsidiary Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. will buy back all of its customers’ auction-rate securities in the next three years. This is a significant change from its initial offer to purchase 10% of the clients’ ARS holdings. The ARS repurchase will occur in four stages:…
According to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman, investors who were defrauded by R Allen Stanford and Bernard Madoff can claim these theft losses as deductions when filing their taxes. The IRS announced these new procedures on Tuesday. These new IRS rules are applicable to victims of any Ponzi scam…
According to a TD Ameritrade Institutional survey, most investment advisers continue to tell their clients that now is a great time to invest in the financial market rather than encouraging them to cash out their investments in the wake of the financial crisis: • 93% of investment advisers are not…
In 2007, Morgan Keegan settled an arbitration claim with the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund for an undisclosed amount. The charity had reported losing $48,000 in a mutual fund it had invested in with the brokerage firm. The Wish Fund became involved in mortgage securities after a local banker persuaded the…
A US District Court judge says Moody’s Corp. investors can go ahead in part with a lawsuit accusing the credit rating agency of securities fraud. The class action lawsuit accuses Moody’s of claiming it was an independent body that impartially published accurate financial instrument ratings when such misrepresentations artificially inflated…
In Europe, the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has censured UBS’s Luxembourg-based branch for failing to execute due diligence and, as a result, allegedly allowing for the massive losses investors have incurred from the Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scam. The Luxembourg financial service regulator is accusing…
The Securities and Exchange Commission may be “too close” to larger investment firms that they give them preferential treatment in SEC Actions, says a Harvard Law School study. One “tentative” explanation cited by the study is that SEC officials look to the larger broker-dealers-especially those located in New York-for future…
The Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust is suing a number of investment banks, credit rating agencies, and underwriters, including Wells Fargo, WFASC, Morgan Stanley & Co., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Barclays Capital Inc., Bear Stearns & Co., Countrywide Securities Corp., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., JPMorgan Chase Inc., Bank of America…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing money managers Stephen Walsh and Paul Greenwood, along with their affiliated entities Westridge Capital Management, WG TRADING Company, LP, and WG Investors, LP, of orchestrating an investment fraud scam that has resulted in the misappropriation of some $554 million in investor assets. According…
Many lawyers and investors complain about securities arbitration. According to Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LTD LLP Founder and Stockbroker Fraud Attorney William Shephard, however, the following Morgan Stanley case is “one of many cases filed in court which would have likely not been dismissed in securities arbitration.” Earlier this…