Financial Firms

Ex-J.P. Morgan Bankers to Settle SEC’s $8.2M Bribery Case Related to Jefferson County, Alabama Bonds

Published on: December 2, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Douglas MacFaddin and Charles LeCroy will pay $326,373 to settle SEC civil charges accusing them of paying friends of Jefferson County, Alabama officials $8.2M in return for $5B in county bond business. Together, the ex-J.P. Morgan Securities (JPM) executives will pay $326,373 once a district court judge approves the proposed settlements—that’s 4% of the $8.2M that was allegedly paid so that their firm could get the business.

Jefferson Count experienced financial woes when it borrowed funds so it could comply with a 1996 court order to stop sewer leaks from getting into area streams. Additional construction costs and bond swaps cost the project to exceed over $3B.

The Commission’s lawsuit had alleged violations of its law and rules. The regulator’s charges against the two men were resolved in mediation.

Citigroup Could Pay $872M in Securities Lawsuit by Allied Irish Banks

Published on: November 30, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Twelve years after Allied Irish Banks Plc (AIB) filed a securities lawsuit against Citigroup (C) accusing the bank of helping a rogue trader conceal about $691 million in losses, the case is slated to go to trial next month. AIB reportedly wants $872M from the New York-based bank— $372M in damages and about $500M in pre-judgment interest.

It was in 2003 that AIB sued Citigroup subsidiary Citibank and Bank of America Corp. (BAC). AIB contends that the defendants were linked to a scam that led to significant losses for its former unit, Allfirst Financial. Bank of America has already settled the allegations against it.

In 2002, trader John Rusnak’s losses were discovered and he pleaded guilty to banking fraud. Rusnak admitted to concealing $691M in trading losses while employed at Allfirst. The losses were sustained over five years and came from primarily trading the Japanese yen and for taking even bigger risks as he sought to get back some of these losses.

While Rusnak did not make a direct profit from the losses, he made over $650K in bonuses when he made it appear as if Allfirst was making money. He was released from prison in 2009.

SEC Cases: Ex-Stockbroker Accused of Bilking Investor for Home Renovations, Marwood Group Admits to Wrongdoing Over Compliance Failures, and Ex-Goldman Sachs Employee Faces Insider Trading Charges

Published on: November 28, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former Stockbroker Raises Over $1.2M from Customers to Remodel His Home
The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging ex-stockbroker Bernard M. Parker with Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 violations, as well as violations of Rule 10b-5. The regulator says that Parker raised over $1.2M from long-term brokerage customers and others by getting them to think they were buying real estate tax client certificates and would make up to 9% yearly interest.

Instead, says the SEC, Parker only used a small part of that money to buy the liens. He used their other funds to remodel his house, pay his father-in-law’s bills, and make car payments. The agency also claims that the ex-broker conducted the unregistered and fraudulent investment offering using his Parker Financial Services from ’08 to ’14. He also purportedly failed to notify the investment advisory firm and broker-dealer where he was dually registered about his side business.

The Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania has filed criminal charges against Parker in a parallel case over the alleged broker fraud.

Political Intelligence Firm Admits to Compliance Failures
Marwood Group Research LLC has admitted to compliance failures and will settle the SEC’s case against it by paying a $375,000 penalty. According to the Commission, the firm did not properly notify compliance officers about the times that analysts received potential material nonpublic data from government employees.

The firm’s own written policies and procedures are supposed to play a key part in Marwood Group’s efforts to stop nonpublic and confidential data from reaching its clients so as not to influence their decisions regarding securities trading. Yet its misconduct happened in 2013 when analysts were looking for information about pending regulatory approvals and policies at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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RBS May Be Subject to More Criminal Charges Over Alleged Loan Securities Price Inflations

Published on: November 24, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to the New York Post, sources say that the US Attorney’s office in Connecticut is going after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and at least two traders over complex debt securities that investors bought up through 2013. Ex-RBS banker Matthew Katke, who pled guilty earlier this year to inflating collateralized loan obligation prices, reportedly provided cooperating testimony in the case.

Federal prosecutors are also reportedly pursuing criminal charges against RBS. That investigation is over the alleged sale of flawed mortgage securities related to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Wall Street Journal says that sources have told them that prosecutors are looking at a $2.2B deal that repackaged home mortgages into bonds eight years ago. It was just two years ago that RBS settled a Securities and Exchange Commission case that described the lead banker as attempting to push the deal through even though the diligence department had raised red flags.

The RBS probe mirrors the $150M civil settlement the bank reached in 2013. That case resolved SEC claims accusing it of misleading investors on a $2.2B subprime mortgage offering.

Securities News: Barclays to Pay $120M to Settle Libor Rigging Litigation, Investment Advisor Firm Settles Charges Over Custody Rule Violations, and SEC Accuses Man of $190M Scam Involving Private Placements, Nursing Homes

Published on: November 21, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Barclays Resolves Securities Fraud Claims Related to Libor Rigging
Barclays PLC (BARC) has consented to pay $120 million to resolve securities fraud claims accusing the bank of conspiring with competitors to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate, also known as Libor. Barclays is the first to settle allegations made by “over-the-counter” investors.

It was just last month that the British bank consented to pay $94M to resolve litigation accusing it of trying to rig Euribor, which is the euro-denominated equivalent of Libor. Barclays has admitted to rigging both benchmarks. The bank paid settlements to regulators in the United States and in Great Britain.

Libor is used to establish rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions, such as those involving student loans, credit cards, and mortgages. Banks use Libor to assess how much it will cost to borrow from each other. To date, over a dozen banks have been sued for conspiring to rig Libor.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York, who approved the class action settlement, said in August that the plaintiffs could win fraud claims if they proved that panel banks lied to the administrator of Libor about borrowing costs and the plaintiffs had depended on these fallacies. Buchwald, in 2013, threw out a “substantial” chunk of this private case, which included federal antitrust claims.

Investment Advisory Firm, Co-Founders to Pay $1M to Settle Custody Rule Violation Charges
Sands Brothers Asset Management LLC and co-founders Steven Sands and Martin Sands will pay a $1 million penalty to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing them of violating the custody rule. They also have consented to a year suspension from raising funds from existing or new investors. The firm will under go compliance monitoring for three years. Ex-COO and CCO Christopher Kelly will pay a $60K penalty and serve a one-year suspension from acting as a COO or practicing in front of the SEC as a lawyer.

Under the custody rule, firms have to get independent confirmation of assets when they can control or access client funds or securities. This is so that investors know their money is protected from misuse or theft. The firm, the two Sands brothers, and Kelly settled the charges without or denying or admitting to them.
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FINRA Cases: Deutsche Bank Fined $1.4M for Reg SHO and Short Interest Reporting Violations, Scottrade to Pay $2.6M for Email and Electronic Record Failures, and Cantone Capital Faces Fraud Charges

Published on: November 21, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Fines Deutsche Bank Securities $1.4M

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is fining Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (DB) $1.4M for Regulation SHO violations, as well as for supervisory failures. According to the self-regulatory organization, for more than 10 years, the firm improperly included securities positions of a broker-dealer affiliate who isn’t from the US in a number of aggregation units. Deutsche Bank purportedly did this when trying to figure out the net position of each unit.

Under Reg SHO, firms can use an aggregation unit to track positions in security from certain trading operations or trading desks separate from other positions. However, to determine the aggregation unit’s net positions, firms are not allowed to use the securities positions of a non-US brokerage firm affiliate.

Also, FINRA mandates that firms—barring specific exemptions—regularly report total short positions in customer and proprietary firm accounts in equity securities. The positions have to be reported not on a net basis. Instead, they should be based on a gross basis. The SRO said that for more than eight years, Deutsche Bank reported net positions in its financial aggregation accounts, submitting those as its short interest position.

The SRO said that Deutsche Bank’s supervisory system as it relates to short interest reporting and its aggregation unit structure was not designed in a reasonable enough manner to identify and stop these rule violations. By settling, Deutsche Bank is not denying or admitting to the violation charges.

Scottrade Ordered to Pay $2.6M Fine for Electronic Records, Email Retention Failures

Scottrade, Inc. must pay a $2.6M fine to settle FINRA allegations accusing the firm of not keeping a lot of securities-related electronic records in the format mandated, which is known as WORM. Scottrade is also accused of not keeping specific categories in outgoing email and failing to have a supervisory system in place that could fulfill compliance related to certain FINRA and Securities and Exchange Commission rules regarding books and records.

Securities Fraud Cases: Wedbush to Pay $813K Over Investment Fraud Allegations, SEC Files Pump-and-Dump Charges in Marley Coffee Case, and CFTC Accuses IB Capital of Soliciting $50M for Forex Trading While Unregistered

Published on: November 18, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Wedbush to Pay Trusts, Family Members Over $813,000
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Panel says that Wedbush securities and investment advisor Kevin Thomas Scarpelli must jointly and severally pay several investors over $813,000 to resolve allegations of professional negligence and failure to supervise related to investments made in Natural Resources USA Corp. The respondents denied the allegations and asked that the claims be thrown own.

After considering the pleadings, evidence, and testimony, the panel decided that Wedbush and Scarpelli must pay claimants: Mary L. Riscornia TTEE nearly $263,000, Jennifer Tiscornia over $252,313, Nicolas E. Toussaint over $55,300, Nicolas E. Toussaint TTEE over $1800, Michael J. Nicolai over $18,4000, Michael Nicolai TTEE over $156,221, Jeffrey M. Nicolai over $22,154, Katherine M. Nicolai over $22,000 and Alexandria P. Nicolai over $22,000 in damages, interest, legal fees, and costs. The FINRA panel denied Scarpelli’s request to have his record expunged of this securities case.

SEC Files Charges in $78M Pump-and-Dump Scam Involving Jammin’ Java Stock, Marley Trademark
The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing ex-Jammin’ Java CEO Shane Whittle of masterminding a $78 million pump-and-dump scam involving the company’s shares. Jammin’ Java operates Marley Coffee, which uses the late reggae legend Bob Marley’s trademark to sell products.

According to the regulator, Whittle used a reverse merger to-in secret-get control of millions of Jammin’ Java shares, which he then spread to offshore entities under the control of Michael Sun, Wayne Weaver, and René Berlinger. The shares were dumped on the public after their price rose in the wake of bogus promotional campaigns. Whittle purportedly hid the scam by making misleading omissions and statements in reports submitted to the SEC.
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10 Former Barclays and Deutsche Bank Traders Charged with Rigging Euribor

Published on: November 14, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have charged 10 former Barclays Plc (BARC) and Deutsche Bank AG (DEB) employees with rigging the Euribor benchmark. The ex-Deutsche Bank traders are Christian Bittar, Achim Kraemer, Joerg Vogt, Andreas Hauschild, Kai-Uwe Kappauf, and Ardalan Gharagozlou. The former Barclays traders are Philippe Moryoussef, Colin Bermingham, Sisse Bohart, and Carlo Palombo. An unidentified 11th trader is also expected to be charged.

Except for Bermingham, the rest of the defendants live outside Great Britain. These are the first charges in the Serious Fraud Office’s probe of Libor rigging involving the Euro interbank offered rate. More individuals are expected to be prosecuted.

Earlier this week, Bittar, who was once among Deutsche Bank’s most successful traders before he was let go in 2011, won a separate ruling. Although his name wasn’t mentioned in the Financial Conduct’s ruling in an interest rate benchmark’s manipulation probe into his former employer, Bittar contended that he was clearly identifiable in the details of the settlement. Bittar argued that because of this he was entitled to look at FCAs settlement with Deutsche Bank prior to its disclosure.

Global regulators had fined Deutsche Bank $2.5 billion earlier this year and the FCA published a document detailing the wrongdoing that included the term
“manager B” when referring to one of its managers. Bittar said that term clearly referred to him. A London judge said that Bittar was indeed improperly identified.

Investors May Have Lost Up to 88% in Goldman Sachs BRIC Fund

Published on: November 9, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) is folding its BRIC fund and merging it with a broader emerging market fund. The BRIC fund, which invests in Russia, China, Brazil, and India, has been losing money. In its filing to the SEC, the bank said that it doesn’t see the nine-year-old product experiencing “significant asset growth.” Unfortunately for some investors of the BRIC fund, depending on when you invested, you may have lost up to 88%.

The acronym for the fund comes from the names of the countries in which it invested. Goldman’s BRIC fund allowed investors to bet on growth in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. It was Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jim O’Neill who invented the name, selecting the nations for their potential for growth and their importance to the economy some 14 years ago.

Following an investment boom, these large emerging markets are now starting to falter, as have investors’ previous gains. China is expected to experience its weakest expansion in 25 years and Brazil and Russia are going into recessions. While India has experienced growth, the nation’s prime minister is finding it challenging to put reforms into place.
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Securities Headlines: FINRA Seeking to Fine MetLife Over Variable Annuity Sales, SEC Accuses Scottish Trader of Sending Fake Tweets, Market Rigging, and Judge Orders Man to Stop Crowdfunding Fraud

Published on: November 7, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Plans to Fine MetLife for Purported Variable Annuities Violations
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is looking to impose a significant fine against MetLife’s broker-dealer unit related to possible violations involving variable annuities. The company is cooperating with the regulator’s probe, which is looking at alleged suitability, misrepresentation, and supervision issues related to the selling and replacements of variable annuities.

According to MetLife’s quarterly regulatory filing, FINRA told the insurance giant that it plans to recommend disciplinary action. InvestmentNews reports that in an e-mailed statement, MetLife spokesperson John Calagna said that the company did not agree with the conclusions reached by the regulator and plans to defend itself.

SEC Charges Scottish Trader with Over Market Rigging Involving False Tweets
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed securities fraud charges against James Alan Craig of Scotland for allegedly filing false tweets that caused sharp declines in the stock prices of two companies, even causing one of them to experience a trading halt. The regulator said that Craig sent out false statements via Twitter on accounts that he deceptively set up to make them look like legitimate Twitter accounts of known securities research firms.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Craig’s first bogus tweets caused the share price of one company to drop 28% until Nasdaq temporarily stopped trading. The next day, he sent out false tweets about another company that led to a 16% drop in the share prices of that company. Both days he purchased and sold shares of the companies he targeted to try to profit from the sharp price changes. He was mostly successful in his efforts.
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