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Last month, when Brookstreet Securities suffered a flame-out over high risk mortgage investments, its second in command, also the son of its founder, joined Wedbush Morgan and invited Brookstreet brokers to join him at that firm. Some thought it an odd fit, but the firms may have more in common than earlier believed.

Recently, a group on nuns, who claim they were led to believe they were making safe investments, apparently had their funds invested by Wedbush into mortgage-backed CMO securities which were just pools of mobile home loans. They soon lost $1 million, according to a complaint filed by The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in California against Wedbush Morgan in arbitration through the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Ed Wedbush, president of the firm that handled the nuns’ investments, said in an interview that the losses in this and other cases came on the riskier portions of mortgage investments and were the result of “clients being very aggressive and wanting high yields.” They should have understood, he said, that “high yield is high risk.” (The statement resembles another recently made by Oppenheimer & Company, which claimed an elderly widow “only has herself to blame” for losses in a joint account as her husband lay dying. Oppenheimer was subsequently fined $1 million and ordered to reimburse over a million to the widow by the state of Massachusetts.)

UBS Financial Services, Inc. will pay $23.3 million to settle charges by New York’s Attorney General of “inappropriately steering” of brokerage customers into fee-based accounts. The NYAG said that under the agreement UBS will pay a $2 million fine and $21.3 million to approximately 3,000 customers it inappropriately placed in its InsightOne program.

According to the NYAG office, UBS charged one 91-year-old InsightOne client more than $35,000 over two years, although only four trades transpired in his account, meaning each trade cost him approximately $8,800. In another example, it says an 82-year-old paid approximately $24,000 in InsightOne fees one year in which only one transaction took place.

“UBS convinced customers to rely on its advice and then abused that trust,” said NYAG Andrew Cuomo. “This major settlement is a win for customers inappropriately pushed into unsuitable brokerage accounts and a warning to the entire industry that customers’ interests must come first.”

After a widespread investigation into late-trading of mutual funds the SEC levied sanctions against various mutual fund management companies and others, including fines as well as orders to disgorge profits and to reimburse the victims of the fraudulent trading. In 2004, Invesco was ordered to pay $325 million and AIM Advisors was ordered to pay $50 million.

The basis of the fraud was simple: Closing prices of mutual fund shares are set based on closing prices of the shares held in the funds. However, inflow and outflow of funds can legitimately occur based on orders placed prior to the close. The fraudulent orders were placed after the market closed but were made to appear as earlier orders. Those transacting the late orders had the unfair advantage of news announced after the close as well as post-closing changes in stock prices.

Over several years, billions were reaped from such improper market timing activities. The victims of the fraud were the millions of legitimate owners of the mutual funds. The SEC has established what it calls “Fair Funds” to reimburse victims of late trading and other scams. This week over $300 million will be also distributed to Time Warner shareholders who bought based on improper financial data. The SEC says that, with these distributions, the total paid from Fair Funds now tops $2 billion.

Securities America, Inc. agreed to a $375,000 fine to settle charges by the NASD that it received improperly directed mutual fund commissions on behalf of one of its brokers, failed to supervise and failed to disclose the arrangements to the affected mutual fund owners.

The NASD said that this situation, in which a mutual fund company directed brokerage fees specifically for the benefit of a lone broker, is the first known case of its kind. NASD rules prohibit registered firms from allowing sales personnel to participate in directed brokerage arrangements. NASD fair dealing regulations also require disclosure to clients of such fees and other compensation received through arrangements involving their accounts.

A directed brokerage arrangement is one in which a client, such as a pension fund, directs a planner to use a certain broker-dealer for trade executions. In return for the commissions received on the transactions, the broker-dealer provides other services to the advisor or these can be rebated to the clients. The Securities America broker arranged for such commissions from union-sponsored retirement plan clients to be directed to his firm for his own benefit.

Margin debt owed on stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange has surpassed $350 billion. This is up to $35 billion, or over 10%, in just one month. The jump in margin debt brings new warnings to investors concerning the risks of leveraged investments.

Traditional theories concerning the stock market include that small investors are always wrong. They jump into the market when it is near its highs and get out near the lows. There is both a guesstimate and empirical data to support this theory. One measure of investing by small investors is margin account debt. With the exception of hedge funds, most large investors do not use margin.

Considering this theory, the warnings are thus two-fold. Not only is high margin account debt an indicator of a market top, but margin investing can also be very dangerous. Margin debt amplifies losses and even a moderate drop in stock prices can cause forced liquidations. As well, the cost of margin interest exacerbates losses in leveraged accounts. Non-margined investors can wait for recovery without liquidation or enduring interest costs.

After sale if its U.S. Trust subsidiary to Bank of America for $3.3 billion, Charles Schwab Corporation has decided to distribute even more than the proceeds of that sale to its shareholders by buying back shares and paying a special dividend.

Under the plan, San Francisco-based Schwab will pay up to $22.50 per share for 84 million shares of its own stock — 10 percent above the previous closing price. It will guarantee selling stockholders at least $19.50 per share, and also purchase up to 18 million additional shares from its founder. Charles Schwab will himslef receive over $400 million and will maintain his stake at its current level of 18%, which would be valued at over $4.5 billion.

The auction, which covers about 7 percent of Schwab’s outstanding shares has already begun and is to be completed by July 31. In addition to $2.3 billion to buy the stock, in August Schwab will also pay $1.2 billion to shareholders through a $1 per share special dividend.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently made a $37 million disbursement to more than 300,000 investors in the Columbia Funds who were injured in the widespread fraudulent mutual fund market timing scandal. The SEC said this was the first of four anticipated distributions of approximately $140 million total to be paid to 600,000 affected Columbia account holders.

These funds were obtained in a settlement in 2004 with Columbia Management Advisors Inc. and Columbia Funds Distributor Inc. The SEC had charged that between 1998 and 2003, the two entered into or allowed arrangements to market-time Columbia funds.

The SEC has returned more than $1.8 billion through such distributions, said Linda Thomsen, director of the agency’s Division of Enforcement. Additional information can be learned by contacting David P. Bergers, John T. Dugan, or Celia D. Moore in the SEC’s Boston Regional Office at 617-573-8900.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has published a 121-page proposal for dropping the requirement that non-U.S. companies reconcile to the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as required by U.S. firms in financial reports.

The proposal would apply to foreign private issuers that file financial statements to comply with the English language version of IFRS as published by the International Accounting Standards Board. “The Commission has taken a significant step on this important policy matter that was outlined in the ‘Roadmap’ announced in 2005,” said Conrad Hewitt, the SEC chief accountant.

“Along with the Commission’s work relating to internal control reporting and deregistration, this proposal to accept financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS as published by the IASB without a US GAAP reconciliation represents another significant action to tailor the regulatory environment for foreign companies in the U.S. public capital markets,” said John White, director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.

Massachusetts securities regulators fined Oppenheimer & Company, Inc. a million dollars for failing to supervise its representatives and ordered the company to also pay $135,000 to the victim, the difference between the losses she sustained and the amount Oppenheimer earlier paid her.

Oppenheimer was charged with failing to supervise a broker as he allegedly engaged in acts including theft, fraud, churning and unauthorized trading in the account of an elderly couple. The firm consented to the order without admitting or denying the claims. The broker is currently under indictment for securities fraud.

After her husband died, personnel at the elderly woman’s bank raised concerns over the activity which had occurred in the couple’s brokerage account. The widow approached Oppenheimer and claims were ultimately filed in arbitration. Oppenheimer then responded by saying she “only has herself to blame for any losses or other injury she may have suffered.” The arbitration claims were later resolved with Oppenheimer paying less than was lost.

The former chief administrative officer of Trautman Wasserman & Co. Inc. agreed to pay a $50,000 fine to settle SEC administrative charges he helped facilitate a scheme to engage in late-trading in mutual funds shares on behalf of certain favored customers and for the firm’s own account.

The man who once served as TWCO’s “de facto chief compliance officer” consented, without either admitting or denying wrongdoing, to be barred from the securities industry, cease and desist from future violations and cooperate in the SEC’s investigation.

Earlier this year, the SEC charged the executive, TWCO and five of its other officials over their alleged roles in the scheme. The SEC claims included that he and two others he supervised thwarted efforts by mutual fund companies to curtail excessive timing.

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