The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against 26 defendants for their alleged involvement in a $428 million securities fraud scheme targeting thousands of senior citizens and other investors in the United States. According to the SEC action, filed in Chicago’s federal district court, the defendants participated in selling “Universal…
The new Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has launched a section on its website to provide online information for retail investors. The “Market Data” section on FINRA’s website provides data on equities, options, mutual funds and corporate, municipal, Treasury and Agency bonds. The site also provides a page for all stock…
The North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. of Washington (NAASA) plans a vote by its members by the end of this year on a proposal which would make it a violation of state securities regulations to “misuse, mischaracterize or fraudulently represent a designation that has little or no value,” said…
In one of the largest online stock manipulation campaigns in history, spammers sent out some 500 million e-mails last month advising recipients to invest in Prime Time Stores Inc. This prime example of “pump and dump” scamming involved spammers purchasing shares in a company, promoting it, and then waiting for…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that a number of mutual funds have started providing risk/return data with the use of interactive reporting language. Vanguard 500 Index Fund, Allegiant Advantage Fund, Muhlenkamp Fund, and American Funds’ Europacific Growth Fund are among the mutual funds that have taken what the…
The Wealth Advisor Institute wants the way U-5 termination forms are filed to be reformed. The forms are used for reporting information about why a broker has left a firm. A copy of the form then has to be given by the broker to a new employer. The WAI called…
Washington lawyer Peggy Blake, who recently joined Winston & Strawn as a corporate partner, reports her foreign financial services clients are “very optimistic” about the movement afoot at the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a mutual recognition regime. Yet, during recent trips to London and Geneva, she found a…
Justice for investors is simply denied in New York courts and a trend of no justice for investors threatens to spread nationwide as more and more “activist” business-friendly judges are appointed to the federal bench. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, known to be friendly…
Three hedge fund companies pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy charges in a Florida Federal Court in a scheme that cost victims nearly $195 million. The defendants included KL Group LLC, Shoreland Trading LLC, and KL Triangulum Management LLC, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a written statement. These companies…
A month ago the SEC rolled out a list of companies officially linked to countries designated by the U.S. Secretary of State as state sponsors of terrorism. The SEC’s published list, which included Halliburton and other large companies, received more than 150,000 Internet hits. It also stirred a firestorm from…