The NASD announced this week that it fined two Fidelity brokerage firms $400,000 for preparing and distributing misleading sales literature promoting Systematic Investment Plans, which were sold primarily to U.S. military personnel. Issuance and sales of new systematic investment plans after these were prohibited by Congress last fall. The NASD…
Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., the world’s second largest securities firm, will pay $7.9 million for its failure to provide best execution to certain retail orders for over-the-counter securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced today. Morgan Stanley embedded undisclosed mark-ups and mark-downs on certain retail OTC orders processed by…
Stock market cheerleaders these days sound as inebriated as New Year’s Eve drunks on Y2K. Too bad their hangovers have apparently affected their memories since 1/01/2000. Since that date, over 88 months or more than two-thirds of a decade have passed by, yet the Dow Jones Average Industrial Average and…
When state securities regulators led by Elliot Spitzer of New York exposed a shocking level of crime and fraud on Wall Street, corporations and securities firms stepped up their campaign to gut state securities laws and the powers of state regulators. These special interests had already convinced Congress to forbid…
Randi Collotta, an Ex-Morgan Stanley compliance officer and attorney, and her husband, Christopher Collotta, are slated to plead guilty on May 10, 2007 for their involvement in one of the largest insider trading schemes to take place on Wall Street since the 1980’s. Randi Collotta is accused by U.S. prosecutors…
In the wake of the collapse of the subprime residential mortgage market, the leading bond rating agencies are beginning to crack down on what they see as risky lending practices in commercial real estate as well. Like residential loans, commercial mortgages are pooled and packaged into bonds that are sliced…
Ronald Peteka, a former Morgan Stanley & Co. client services representative, was arrested last month. According to Michael Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Peteka allegedly stole proprietary information about hedge funds from Morgan Stanley while working with one of the brokerage firm’s consultants for…
Geoffrey Brod, a former Aeltus Investment Management LLC portfolio manager has been charged by the SEC with concealing personal stock trades held by mutual funds that he was overseeing. The SEC is also charging him with falsifying internal reports. According to the SEC, Brod’s wrongful activities are in violation of…
As earlier reported, the securities firm of Edward Jones was ordered by the SEC to pay a total of $79 million to its clients and former clients. According to the SEC, the company failed to disclose kickbacks the firm received from various mutual fund companies, known as the “Preferred Fund…
The SEC is considering a new policy that could let companies resolve shareholder complaints via arbitration. If adopted, this policy could limit a shareholder’s ability to sue the company in court. A move toward arbitration could shift the balance of power between corporate managements and shareholders during a time when…