Broker William Thomas Johnson Jr. has been permanently barred by the Financial industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for misappropriating about $100,000 in customer funds. On June 1, Johnson submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to settle a number alleged FINRA rule violations. He accepted and consented to an entry of findings by FINRA…
On July 13, a three-person arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) handed down a $1.7 million arbitration award against JHS Capital Advisors Inc. and one of its former brokers. Claimant John Sisk claimed excessive trading and churning, common law fraud, ordinary negligence, gross negligence, breach of contract, negligent retention and hiring, control…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) implemented a new suitability rule on July 9 that broadens the list of factors firms and brokers need to analyze before recommending securities or investment strategies. The SEC Approves New FINRA Rule The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the new FINRA Rule 2111 in November 2010. Since then,…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed a complaint against Charles Duane Lewis, a broker with H.D. Vest Investment Services who misappropriated more than $500,000 from an elderly customer. The complaint, filed by FINRA’s Department of Enforcement on June 25, states that Lewis misappropriated the money between December 2007 and May 2010 from an…
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. has been fined $450,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for failure to supervise operations to prevent unsuitably high concentrations of structured products from building up in customer accounts. The firm submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to settle alleged violations of FINRA rules….
OppenheimerFunds Inc. agreed to pay roughly $35 million to settles charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it made misleading statements to investors in two mutual funds that rapidly lost value during the 2008 financial crisis. The settlement consists of a $24 million penalty, disgorgement of about $9.8 million and prejudgment interest of…
Occupy Wall Street filed an amicus curiae brief on May 21 urging the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s rejection of a $285 million settlement agreement Citigroup reached last year with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to resolve charges that the giant bank had gamed the mortgage bond market. The…
Two subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley were fined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) earlier this month for negligently making material misrepresentations to investors regarding the call price and yield of certain fixed-income securities, as well as negligently failing to disclose that these securities were interest-only. The misrepresentations were the result of incomplete information that…
Scott B. Hostutler, formerly a broker with Edward Jones, was suspended for 10 days by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for trading in a customer’s account without authorization. Hostutler was fined $5,000 in addition to his suspension from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. The sanctions were set out in a Letter…
UBS Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) charged the firm with failure to supervise the sale of complex financial products known as non-traditional exchange-traded funds, as well as for making unsuitable recommendations of these funds. In addition to the fine, UBS Financial Services…
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. has been fined $2 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for failure to supervise and for making unsuitable recommendations in connection with the sale of complex financial products known as non-traditional exchange-traded funds. The firm submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to settle a FINRA disciplinary…
After he misappropriated $734,000 from various customers, Joel W. Carlson, a former broker with Sagepoint Financial Inc., was permanently barred from the business by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Carlson is also facing a civil lawsuit alleging $50,000 in damages stemming from fraudulent indexed annuity sales and misappropriation. The litigation is pending 2nd Judicial…
Thomas R. Fortino, a former broker with First Allied Securities Inc., was fined and suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) after he engaged in business outside his firm, often called selling away, and misled his firm about these activities. Fortino submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) that resolved the FINRA…
AXA Advisors LLC has been fined $50,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and censured for its failure to supervise a broker who misappropriated $122,000 from the money market account of a customer, 70 percent of the account’s value. Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent The firm submitted a Letter of Acceptance Waiver and…
Timothy David Cochrane has been permanently barred from the financial industry as part of a settlement of an action against him for misappropriating $600,000 in customer funds. On March 30, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) accepted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) submitted by Cochrane to resolve alleged rule violations. Cochrane neither admitted…
Raymond James Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay a $400,000 fine to settle allegations that it failed to supervise a customer who used accounts he had with the firm to operate a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme.The firm submitted a Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent (AWC) to resolve a disciplinary action brought by the Financial…
Last month, brokerage firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc. settled a disciplinary action brought against it by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) after one of the firm’s brokers ran a Ponzi scheme that defrauded customers. The terms of the settlement included a $350,000 fine and a censure. Stifel Nicolaus also agreed to pay restitution…
Roland Craig Matatics, a former broker with MetLife Securities Inc. in Keene, N.H., has been permanently barred from the financial industry for misappropriating $10,000 from a customer suffering from dementia. Roland Craig Matatics Submits an AWC The money was later returned and Matatics submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to settle an action…
Last month Leland O. Stevens, a former broker with Great American Advisors Inc., settled a disciplinary action against him after he served up his unwitting customers to a Ponzi scheme. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a complaint against Stevens last year for his role in the sale of promissory notes that turned out…
Cornerstone Core Properties REIT Inc., a non-traded real estate investment trust, has sent a letter to its shareholders bearing some bad news: The REIT’s valuation has plunged from the original issue price of $8.00 per share down to $2.25, a dive of about of 72 percent. Cornerstone’s Letter to Shareholders The company reported the revised…
Last month, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an investor alert to remind investors that a careful review of their periodic brokerage account statements is an important way for them to stay informed about what brokers are doing with their money. The alert, titled “It Pays to Understand Your Brokerage Account Statements and Trade Confirmations,”…
Jimmy Wayne Freeman, a broker with Texas-based PlanMember Securities Corp., was ordered by the Texas Securities Board to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to investors after he sold them securities issued by an outside firm without his firm’s permission and without holding the appropriate securities license. Freeman was also suspended for 12 months from…
Robert Bales, the US Army staff sergeant accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians, was a former stockbroker, who enlisted in the U.S. Army to apparently avoid paying an elderly Ohio couple of their life savings in a stock fraud. According to FINRA records, from 1996 through 2000, Bales was associated with at least seven brokerage…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has sanctioned Christine L. Cantone and her firm for their failure to supervise a broker who sold fictitious investments to customers through which he misappropriated over $1.6 million. Cantone & Cantone Research Inc. Censored & Fined Pursuant to an FINRA order dated Feb. 22 that accepted an offer of…
Anthony L. Semadeni, a former stockbroker with World Group Securities, has been barred from the financial industry for two years and ordered to pay up to $60,000 in restitution plus interest to customers for borrowing money from them and never fully paying it back. Semadeni also lied to World Group about the loans he received…
A former Edward Jones administrator has been permanently barred from the financial industry after misappropriating a total of $63,000 from 21 customers. According to a default decision issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on Feb. 15, Carolyn Avia Harmon misappropriated $63,000 in customer funds between November 2006 and September 2009. She also failed…
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered Stanley C. Brooks, the former CEO of Brookstreet Securities Corp., to pay the maximum civil penalty of $10 million in a securities fraud case that goes back to the financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on March 2. According to the docket, Judge David…
Over five years, former broker James Scott McKee defrauded the customers of the brokerage firms where he worked out of nearly $1 million, using lies and omissions to induce them to invest in various real estate ventures in which he had a direct or indirect financial interest, according to a complaint filed by the Financial…
Evidently, it slipped the mind of one New York stockbroker that dead men can’t trade. Eric Anthony Foster, a stockbroker with Halcyon Cabot Partners Ltd., has been fined $10,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and suspended for three months for unauthorized trading in the account of a deceased customer while he worked for…
Broker-dealer Stone & Youngberg have been fined $350,000 and censured by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for charging excessive markups on trades of collateralized mortgage obligation securities (CMOs) for retail customers. The firm was also required to pay about $206,000 in restitution to customers, without interest, per the terms of a Letter of Acceptance,…
Clyde M. Thornburg, a former stockbroker with NEXT Financial Group Inc., was charged earlier this month with unsuitable short-term trading and switching in the accounts of elderly and unsophisticated investors. The FINRA Complaint On Feb. 9, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a complaint against Thornburg, a Florida-based registered representative with NEXT. The affected…
Philip Eckstein, a former MetLife Securities Inc. broker, was permanently barred from association with any members of the Financial lndustry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) after he converted $10,000 of an elderly customer’s money to his own use. FINRA announced the sanction in a February 8, 2012 Order accepting Eckstein’s offer of settlement after a disciplinary proceeding…
In a striking example of the ineffectiveness that can plague securities regulation, investment adviser Robert Pinkas allegedly misappropriated $800,000 from a client to pay for disgorgement and costs resulting from a previous case brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On Feb. 15, the SEC issued an order to start administrative and…
A former stockbroker for Wells Fargo Advisors LLC has been fined $5,000 and suspended from the financial industry for six months for changing dates and account numbers on forms without customers’ permission. In June 2010, Judith Martin altered the dates and account numbers on 25 Initial Public Offering (IPO) Certification Forms that the Wells Fargo…
Family members may want to stay informed about this aspect of their relatives’ lives, to make sure unscrupulous financial professionals do not take advantage of senior citizens who are cognitively impaired. About 5.2 million Americans over the age of 65 suffer from Alzheimer’s, according to a 2011 report from the Alzheimer’s Association. About 200,000 people…
Florida-based brokerage firm 1st Discount Brokerage Inc. has been censured and fined $40,000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its failure to supervise a broker who defrauded investors of nearly $9 million. In addition, Michael R. Fisher, executive-vice president of the firm at the time, was ordered to pay $10,000, according to the…
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. was censured and fined $725,000 this month by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for its failure to comply with disclosure requirements. From January 2007 through about March 2010, Citigroup Global failed to comply with the disclosure requirements of Rule 2711 of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a predecessor to…
Penny stock promoter First Resource Group LLC and its principal David H. Stern were charged with three counts of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a complaint filed on Jan. 26. The SEC Complaint Stern and his Florida company fraudulently manipulated the market for the stock of two small, thinly traded companies,…
Former stockbroker Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., who pleaded guilty to mail fraud in September, has been barred for life by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for conversion of more than $800,000 in customer funds to his own use. According to FINRA, Thomas misappropriated the money from three vulnerable customers between December 2001, and July…
Former LPL Financial Corp. stockbroker Amrita Holden has been permanently barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for wrongfully converting about $187,000 in customer funds to her own use. While employed by LPL, Holden forged the signature of an elderly customer on distribution request forms for the customer’s Individual Retirement Account (IRA). These forms…
A purported class-action lawsuit brought by a broker-dealer against the predecessor to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., or FINRA, went out meekly this week, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied without explanation the plaintiff’s petition for the case to be heard. The suit, Standard Investment Chartered Inc v. National Association of Securities Dealers, was…
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC has been censured and fined $600,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, for failure to supervise its stockbrokers to ensure compliance with its own guidelines regarding structured products. As a result of this failure of supervision, the firm’s stockbrokers recommended a total of 14 unsuitable structured product investments…
The receiver appointed to handle the fallout from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in Minnesota history has filed suit in federal court in Minneapolis against NRP Financial Inc. for its failure to supervise a registered broker who participated in the fraud that bilked investors out of $150 million. NRP was a registered broker-dealer with…
On October 4, 2011, a FINRA Arbitration Panel sitting Portland, Oregon, in the matter of James D. Brogden, et. al. v. Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc., FINRA Arbitration Number 10-01725 rendered an arbitration award against Merrill Lynch for $96,049 of the $309,358 in damages sought in connection with the recommendation to purchase Federal…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA does not take kindly to stockbrokers who fail to disclose tax liens, perhaps because such behavior can signal un-trustworthiness, the last thing you want to see in a stockbroker. If you are a stockbroker who fails to timely disclose such liens per FINRA rules, you are likely to…
The migration of stockbrokers into the advisory arena through the marketing of brokers as “trusted advisers” and “financial advisors” over the years has fueled confusion among investors as to the services provided by stockbrokers and investment advisers as well as the level of protection. The dirty secret is that aside from filling out an Investment…
Welcome to the age of the Ponzi Scheme, the result of the non-regulation of “hedge funds.” Madoff, Nagel, Stanford, Spitzer, the list goes on and on, millions, tens of billions of dollars swindled by Ponzi scheme scam operators, always, or at least most often leaving investors with nothing, except whatever meager sum the government may…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, recently filed a proposed rule change with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to to adopt NASD Rule 2830 (Investment Company Securities or mutual fund shares) as FINRA Rule 2341 (Investment Company Securities) with certain important changes. NASD Rule 2830 NASD Rule 2830 regulates brokerage firms’ activities in connection with…
The Guiliano Law Group. P.C. has announced the filing of securities arbitration claims before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on behalf of investors suffering losses in Inverse and Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs. Many investors were sold these securities based upon the notion that they could be a long term hedge. Most ETFs track…
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Wells Fargo Securities LLC consented to an $11.2 million fine in connection with the sale of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) in late 2006 and early 2007. The SEC found that Wachovia Capital Markets violated the securities laws by fraudulently charging undisclosed and excessive markups in the…
Just when you thought that you heard it all. The New York Stock Exchange disciplined former Morgan Stanley stockbroker Charles Winitch of Scarsdale, New York, for unauthorized trading, churning or excessive activity, and breach of fiduciary duty with respect to the accounts of his customers. Mr. Winitch’s fraudulent conduct, however, relates to the accounts of…
Following the 2003 Global Settlement with FINRA and the Securities & Exchange Commission, were Morgan Stanley paid $125 million in fines, disgorgement, and “procurement of Independent Research,” it seems Morgan Stanley has been caught again publishing inaccurate and misleading investment research report, which fail to disclose Morgan Stanley?s financial interests, and conflicts of interest to…
The man who predicted in March 2007 the collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market now predicts that Wall Street banks are creating the next investment bubble by selling opaque and unregulated structured notes to investors hunting for yield. Richard Christopher Whalen Whalen wrote today in a report, using the same “loophole” that allowed over-the-counter sales…
Securities arbitration results from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) Office of Dispute Resolution reporting the outcomes of customer initiated investment related arbitrations against stockbrokers and investment firms has been released for 2009. Not surprisingly, the number of FINRA customer initiated arbitration cases filed in 2009 increased 43% from 4,982 cases in 2008 to 7,137…
John Edward Mullins and wife allegedly drained their client’s trust while she was in a nursing home. A former Morgan Stanley broker was barred today by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. for allegedly misappropriating $11,156.47 from the charitable foundation of a 97-year-old nursing home resident who was his client for more than 20 years….
FINRA Fines Bank Broker-Dealers $1.65 Million for Supervisory Failures in Variable Annuity, Mutual Fund and UIT Transactions. Five Firms Sanctioned, One Charged with Unsuitable VA Sales to the Elderly Washington, D.C. — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it fined five bank broker-dealers a total of $1.65 million for deficient supervision and…
Financial crises have a way of jolting investors into seeing that perhaps their brokers weren’t such trustworthy advisers after all. Requests for arbitration hearings are up 85 percent so far this year at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the only place investors can go when they think they have been fleeced. Going to court isn’t…
According to the latest figures from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), through October 2008, investment arbitration claims are up 49% from 2007. In addition, during the first 10 months of 2008, more cases have been already been filed than were filed in all of last year. Most brokerage agreements contain provisions that any disputes…
If your stockbroker sold you improper, excessively risky investments, or — failed to disclose the riskiness of what appeared as an otherwise conservative investment, and as a result you lost your shirt — then today’s story will be especially relevant. For my readers who are stockbrokers, I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to…
Last week I told you about what happened to Hal and his wife, both 67, retired, and long time readers. From more than a million dollars in their 401K account as of January, 2006, their investments have lost close to $750,000. Why? What Went Wrong? “In our final preparations for retirement, in early 2006 even…
Philadelphia, PA (MarketWire) November 6, 2008 –The Guiliano Law Group, P.C., a leading securities lawyer firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced today it is actively investigating and pursuing securities fraud claims against certain securities broker-dealers resulting from the risky or unsuitable recommendation of securities. Investment trusts, labor unions, pension funds, local municipalities, school boards and charitable…
Washington, D.C. – The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has imposed a $250,000 fine against J.P. Turner & Company, LLC of Atlanta, GA, for failing to have an adequate supervisory system designed to ensure that its registered representatives charged customers fair and reasonable commissions on stock trades. As part of the…
LPL Financial was sued last week in Phoenix for its role in an affinity fraud case involving members of a local church and an ex-broker who allegedly stole $5 million from at least 40 victims. The lawsuit alleges that the broker, James Buchanan, was able to steal $382,376 from an elderly married couple because LPL…
PHILADELPHIA – PA Nicholas J. Guiliano of the Guiliano Law Group, P.C., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced today he is actively investigating and pursuing fraud claims against certain securities broker-dealers resulting from the risky or unsuitable recommendation of the securities of certain financial institutions. Tens of Billions Lost in Securities Investment Trusts, Labor Unions, Pension Funds,…
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former broker in South Florida, Gary J. Gross, who allegedly defrauded senior citizens and other customers through a variety of abusive sales practices, garnering him more than $700,000 in commissions and fees while causing more than $2.7 million in investor losses. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced the…
Despite intense pressure from regulators to tighten recruiting standards for brokers with marks on their records, these bad apples are still being hired by new firms, recent cases illustrate. The problem is compounded by an industry practice that condones silence from broker-dealers when a registered representative leaves under a cloud, attorneys and regulators said. It’s…
In a case allegedly involving stolen stock, Wachovia Securities LLC was hammered in a recent arbitration loss and ordered to pay clients $5.3 million in damages. An award of that size is a huge win for investors, attorneys said. The case, which was decided July 30, centered on allegations that Wachovia of St. Louis “accepted…
In a superficial effort to avoid Congress enacting the Arbitration Fairness Act, in response to the perceived corruption of the arbitration process by FINRA, a “self”-regulatory organization consisting of the same brokerage firms that are the defendants or respondents in these cases, announced that it will launch a two-year pilot program later this fall. The pilot program…
Saying stockbrokers should be barred from hiding their mistakes, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler lauded a federal appeals court for allowing state regulators to intervene in malpractice settlements in an attempt to make sure the action stays on the broker’s national record. But the outcome was decried by an attorney for the former broker who…
Last August, Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley and one of its senior traders agreed to pay $6.1 million in fines and restitution to settle allegations that the investment bank overcharged brokerage customers on 2,800 purchases of $59 million of bonds. Dana de Windt, a Crucial Inside Source Regulators investigating the case had a crucial inside…
General Description of Auction Rate Securities Auction rate securities were first offered for sale in U.S. financial markets in the early 1980s. As of the end of 2005, there were approximately $263 billion of auction rate securities outstanding. Many different types of issuers have issued auction rate securities for example, closed-end funds, corporations, municipal authorities…
Recent downgrades of municipal bond insurers and other short-term liquidity concerns have created extreme volatility in the market for municipal Auction Rate Securities. There also have been an unprecedented number of “failed auctions,” meaning that investors who chose to liquidate their positions through the auction process were not able to do so. This situation may…
Testimony of Tanya Solov Director, Illinois Securities Department Illinois Secretary of State On behalf of the North American Securities Administrators Association Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee December 12, 2007 S. 1782, the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007 December 12, 2007 Chairman Feingold, Ranking Member Brownback, and Members of the…
A critical part of the hiring process in the securities industry is the background investigation of prospective personnel. For instance, background investigations can help member firms determine whether a prospective employee is subject to a statutory disqualification or whether he or she may present a regulatory risk for the firm and customers. Firms Obligations It…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. $1 million to settle charges it produced “flawed, incomplete and untimely data” in breakpoint self-assessment. FINRA claimed that New York boutique firm Oppenheimer submitted fund breakpoint data to FINRA that the firm knew to be inaccurate, in addition to other supervisory deficiencies, in 2003….
NYSE HEARING BOARD DECISION 07-143 September 7, 2007 Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Violated NYSE Rule 401(a) by failing to ensure delivery of prospectuses in connection with sales of registered securities in violation of Section 5(b)(2) of Securities Act of 1933 and to deliver trade confirmations to certain customers; violated NYSE Rule 1100(b) by failing to…
NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE LLC NYSE HEARING BOARD DECISION 07-129 September 7, 2007 BANC OF AMERICA SECURITIES LLC MEMBER ORGANIZATION Violated NYSE Rule 401(a) by failing to ensure delivery of prospectuses in connection with sales of registered securities in violation of Section 5(b)(2) of Securities Act of 1933; violated NYSE Rule 1100(b) by failing to…
NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE LLC NYSE HEARING BOARD DECISION 07-116 September 7, 2007 WACHOVIA CAPITAL MARKETS LLC MEMBER ORGANIZATION Violated NYSE Rule 1100(b) by failing to deliver product descriptions to customers that purchased Exchanged Traded Funds; violated NYSE Rule 342 by failing to provide for, establish, and maintain appropriate procedures of supervision and control, including…
Allianz will provide restitution to seniors and implement more stringent suitability processes. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced today the settlement of a lawsuit she brought in January against Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America for selling deferred annuities to Minnesota senior citizens without first determining whether the annuities were suitable investments for the…
Mutual Service Corp. of West Palm Beach Fla., and five of its principals are the subjects of a complaint by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority concerning allegedly shoddy and inaccurate books and records over sales of variable annuities, including tax-free exchanges, known as 1035 exchanges. MSC, with about 1,200 affiliated registered representatives and 800 branches, was…
Pruco Securities, LLC (CRD #5685, Newark, New Jersey) and Prudential Investment Management Services LLC (CRD #18353, Newark, New Jersey) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which they were censured, fined $525,000, jointly and severally, and required to conduct an audit and prepare written findings regarding their compliance with NASD rules relating to…
NEWARK, NJ – Citigroup Global Markets Inc. has been ordered to cease and desist from violations of the New Jersey Uniform Securities Law, and to pay the state $5 million in civil monetary penalties under the terms of a consent order announced today by Attorney General Anne Milgram, Consumer Affairs Acting Director Stephen B. Nolan…
Morgan Stanley agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $8 million to settle federal fraud charges stemming from its reported failure to get retail stock investors the best prices possible on more than a million over-the-counter transactions. The Settlement Over roughly three years, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday in announcing the settlement, “Morgan Stanley’s automated…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the NASD Codes of Arbitration Procedure for Customer and Industry Disputes (hereinafter referred to as the Customer and Industry Codes, respectively, or new Codes). Customer and Industry Codes The Customer and Industry Codes reorganize the dispute resolution rules into separate procedural codes, simplify the language of the…