Morgan Stanley faces a total tally of $5 billion in penalties as it settles claims with federal and state government authorities over charges that the firm misled investors via its marketing, sale and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) during the years leading up to the Great Recession. The penalties and related payments stem from… Read More >>
FINRA Cracks Down on Deutsche Bank Securities, Scottrade
While alleged acts of fraud by Wall Street firms have gotten the spotlight this year, financial services regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is making the point with some firms that they need to maintain high standards for regulatory reporting and for keeping their books and records as specified by industry watchdogs. Most recently,… Read More >>
SEC Slams Firms with Million-Dollar Settlements for Fee Schemes
The SEC announced that an investment advisory firm in Philadelphia, Taberna Capital Management, a subsidiary of RAIT Financial Trust, has agreed to pay more than $21 million to settle charges that it fraudulently retained fees belonging to collateralized debt obligation (CDO) clients, SEC officials say. The firm is also forbidden from doing business for three… Read More >>
SEC Charges Ex-Analyst for JPMorgan with Insider Trading
The SEC is charging a former investment banking analyst, Ashish Aggarwal, who worked in J.P. Morgan’s San Francisco office, with illegally relaying insider information to his friend that was “confidential information about clients involved in impending mergers and acquisitions of technology companies,” officials say. The SEC is also charging Aggarwal’s friend and another individual with… Read More >>
ITG Slapped with Record $20M Alternative Trading Penalty
The SEC reports that NewYork City-based ITG Inc., an execution broker and research provider, and its AlterNet Securities affiliate have agreed to pay $20.3 million to settle charges that they operated a secret trading desk and misused the confidential trading information of dark pool subscribers. ITG agreed to admit wrongdoing and pay disgorgement of $2,081,034… Read More >>
CLO ‘Diva’ to Fight SEC Over Fraud Charges
The self-styled “Diva of Distressed” Lynn Tilton is hitting back. After federal regulators announced Monday that Tilton’s private equity firm Patriarch Partners was being charged with defrauding investors, Tilton and Patriarch filed suit against the SEC on Wednesday. The SEC filed its charges in an internal administrative court, meaning the case would be decided there… Read More >>
SEC Catches Up to Alleged Hedge Fund Fraudster
A recently announced SEC investigation into hedge fund fraud reads like a high-concept movie synopsis that is a cross between “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Producers.” Only this time it’s Wall Street investors who are allegedly being duped, not backers of a Broadway production. The regulator is charging that Moazzam “Mark” Malik has… Read More >>
Will S&P’s $1.5B Settlement Change Anything?
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle claims the company defrauded investors by stamping risky financial products with bullish appraisals in the years leading up to the Great Recession. However, some industry observers aren’t convinced that the record penalties will achieve their intended effect of ensuring the ratings agencies… Read More >>
CFTC Fines Morgan Stanley $280K for KYC Oversight
U.S. regulators have fined Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division $280,000 over failures in its know your customer (KYC) processes that led to a fictitious hedge fund – in reality the front for a U.K.-based Ponzi scheme – being able to open accounts despite numerous red flags, officials say. The CFTC fined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney… Read More >>
SEC Charges Hedge Fund with Portfolio-Pumping
The SEC on Monday filed charges against a Minneapolis-based hedge fund manager, his investment advisory firm and an employee for portfolio pumping and bilking investors in two hedge funds out of more than $1 million, officials say. As management fees earned by Archer Advisors LLC were dwindling due to the funds’ poor performance, the SEC… Read More >>
