The Securities and Exchange Commission says that it will not grant Sky Capital LLC’s request that the agency review the NASD’s action against the firm. The commission says it lacks the proper jurisdiction. Sky Capital became an NASD member in 2002 following initial denials by the NASD and appeals made…
John H. Whittier, a former hedge fund manager and the founder of Wood River Partners LP and its offshore company in the Cayman Island, has pled guilty to carrying out a securities fraud scheme that cost investors $88 million. Whittier had been charged with four counts of securities fraud for…
The National Association of Securities Dealers has issued an “Investor Alert” warning of a rise in deceptive sales practices in the sale of annuities to senior citizens The NASD also states that consumer confusion about annuities has also risen. “This is due, in part, to questionable or deceptive sales practices…
A federal jury has found former Connecticut State Senator William A. DiBella and consulting firm North Cove Ventures LLC liable for aiding and abetting a fraudulent investment scam. The scheme involves former Connecticut State Treasurer Paul Silvester, who had invested $75 million in state pension funds with private equity firm…
The order by an administrative law judge barring Bradley T. Smith, the former president of Bancshareholders of America Inc., from the investment adviser and broker-dealer industries has been affirmed by the SEC. Since 2005, Smith has been under a federal court injunction related to private security offerings made by five…
Wachovia Corporation agreed to acquire A.G. Edwards Corporation for $6.8 billion in stock. This will vault the company into the second-largest U.S. retail brokerage, behind only Merrill Lynch, with $1.1 trillion in client assets. This transaction is the largest of the recent takeovers of regional brokerage firms, which are having…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted Tenet Healthcare Corp. an unusual break: The company will be given protection against shareholder lawsuits even though it is being punished for fraud. The SEC accused the largest publicly traded hospital chain of deceiving investors by failing to disclose a scheme to boost…
A large percentage of U.S. investors could be convinced to invest into a “guaranteed return” investment scam, according to a poll by “Money-Track,” a public-television series, and Investor Protection Trust, an investor education group. The poll surveyed investors regarding eight basic investment principles, such as the definition of diversification and…
After his former boss was sentenced, a former head of American trading on the Citibank NA commodity desk was sentenced in May to 12 months and a day in prison and ordered to pay approximately $188,000 after pleading guilty to conspiring to falsify bank records and to commit wire fraud,…
In two related decisions the a New York U.S. Bankruptcy Court determined that a failed broker-dealer must arbitrate (under the NASD Code of Arbitration) its differences with a former registered representative and the firm that hired him — even though the defunct firm is no longer is an NASD member…