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 […]
Read More »Former CEO of Brookstreet Securities Fined $10 Million for CMO Fraud
SEC Charges Florida Penny Stock Promoter With Three Counts of Securities Fraud
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, […]
Read More »Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on FINRA Immunity from Legal Action
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 […]
Read More »Regulators Propose Brokerage Firms Disclose Kickbacks from Mutual Fund Underwriters
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 […]
Read More »Wells Fargo Securities LLC & Wachovia Capital Markets LLC Fined $11.2 for Fraud
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 […]
Read More »Description of Merrill Lynch’s Auction Rate Securities Practices & Procedures
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 […]
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