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Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 16:18:26

SEC's July 15 Meeting will Consider Municipal Securities Underwritings

Posted on July 13, 2009
The SEC's next Open Meeting is July 15. The subject matter is: The Commission will consider a recommendation regarding amendments to Rule 15c2-12 ("Rule") under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act"), concerning the responsibilities of a broker, dealer, or...

SEC Charges Seattle Attorney with Pump & Dump Scheme for MitoPharm Stock

Posted on July 13, 2009
The SEC charged Seattle-based securities lawyer David Otto and several others with conducting a fraudulent ?pump-and-dump? scheme in which they secretly unloaded more than $1 million in penny stock of a company touting non-existent anti-aging products...

SEC Releases Statement on Preventing Unfair Trading by Employees

Posted on July 13, 2009
The Securities and Exchange Commission released a Statement for the Record Before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, on July 13 in connection with the Subcommittee?s hearing entitled, ?Preventing Unfair Trading by Government...

Some Key Provisions of Proposed Investor Protection Legislation

Posted on July 13, 2009
I posted over the weekend the text of the proposed Investor Protection Act of 2009(Download InvestorProtectionAct2009) released by Treasury. In this blog, I discuss some of its key provisions: Investment Advisory Committee. The role of this Committee (already organized by...

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Partnoy on Regulating Credit Ratings

Posted on July 12, 2009
Rethinking Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies: An Institutional Investor Perspective, by Frank Partnoy, University of San Diego - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This white paper was commissioned by the Council of Institutional...

Partnoy on Overdependence on Ratings

Posted on July 12, 2009
Overdependence on Credit Ratings Was a Primary Cause of the Crisis, by Frank Partnoy, University of San Diego - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A primary cause of the recent credit market turmoil...

Bruner on the Anglo-American Corporation

Posted on July 12, 2009
Power and Purpose in the 'Anglo-American' Corporation, by Christopher M. Bruner, Washington and Lee University - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Public corporations in the United States and the United Kingdom are ?...

Stout on Derivatives Regulation

Posted on July 12, 2009
How Deregulating Derivatives Led to Disaster, and Why Re-Regulating Them Can Prevent Another, by Lynn A. Stout, University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When credit markets froze up...

Former Mayer Brown Lawyer Convicted for his Role in Refco Fraud

Posted on July 11, 2009
Joseph P. Collins, a former partner at Mayer Brown and longtime attorney for Refco, was convicted on Friday on conspiracy, securities and wire fraud charges in connection with Refco's scheme to hide its financial difficulties. The jury deadlocked on a...

Treasury Releases Proposed Investor Protection Legislation

Posted on July 11, 2009
The U.S. Treasury Dept. released a Fact Sheet: Administration?s Regulatory Reform Agenda Moves Forward Legislation for Strengthening Investor Protection Delivered to Capitol Hill. Here it is in full: (The proposed legislative language is here.) Continuing its push to establish new...

SEC Publishes Proposed Amendments to Compensation and Corporate Governance Disclosures

Posted on July 11, 2009
The SEC published on its website proposed amendments to the rules to enhance the compensation and corporate governance disclosures registrants are required to make about their overall compensation policies and their impact on risk taking; stock and option awards of...

Hedge Fund Found Liable for Short Selling Violations of Reg M

Posted on July 11, 2009
On July 7, 2009, the United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York found after a bench trial that Cary G. Brody and two entities he controlled, New York hedge fund Colonial Fund LLC and its adviser,...

SEC Alleges Illinois Hedge Fund Manager Invested $2 Billion in Ponzi Scheme

Posted on July 11, 2009
The SEC announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against a hedge fund manager and his firm for facilitating a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme operated by Minnesota businessman Thomas Petters. The SEC's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the...

Ameriprise Settles SEC Charges for Failing to Disclose REIT Revenue Sharing Payments

Posted on July 11, 2009
The SEC announced that broker-dealer Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., settled charges alleging that it received millions of dollars in undisclosed compensation as a condition for offering and selling certain real estate investment trusts (REITs) to its brokerage customers...

IPOS on U.S. Exchanges in 2009 Total Almost $2.5 Billion

Posted on July 11, 2009
According to a NYSE Euronext press release, through first-half 2009, 11 IPOs on the NYSE raised a total of $2.2 billion in proceeds. Three IPOs listed on Nasdaq OMX during that time period raised $268 million. The press release says...

SEC Charges Russian Firm with Manipulating Stocks Through Innocent Victims' Accounts

Posted on July 09, 2009
The SEC filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York charging Russian entity Pointer Worldwide Ltd and its officer, Tatiana Badmaeva, with participating in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the prices of...

SEC Staff Issues Warning on Cal. IOUs

Posted on July 09, 2009
The SECstaff today issued the following statement: The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has expressed its belief that California?s recently-issued IOUs are ?securities? under federal securities law. As such, holders of these IOUs and those who may purchase...

SEC Charges New York Broker-Dealer with $61 Million Boiler Room Fraud

Posted on July 08, 2009
On July 8, 2009, the SEC filed a civil injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that a New York based broker-dealer, Sky Capital LLC a/k/a Granta Capital LLC (Sky Capital)...

Pace Investor Rights Clinic Investor's Guide to Securities Industry Disputes

Posted on July 08, 2009
The Pace Law School Investor Rights Clinic has published an Investors' Guide to Securities Industry Disputes( Securities Dispute Guide). This extremely useful guide first provides basic information on how to avoid disputes with brokers and sets forth investors' rights and...

SEC's Investor Advisory Committee Announces Public Meeting

Posted on July 08, 2009
The SEC's newly-formed Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on July 27, 2009, at the SEC's main offices at 10 a.m. It will be open to the public and webcast. The public is invited to submit written statements...

Former CFO of UCI Medical Affiliates Settles Fraud, Embezzlement Charges with SEC

Posted on July 08, 2009
The SEC filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina against Jerry F. Wells, Jr. ("Wells"), a former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of UCI Medical Affiliates, Inc. ("UCI" or the...

SEC Obtains Asset Freeze in Alleged $485 Million Ponzi Scheme

Posted on July 07, 2009
On July 2, 2009, the SEC obtained a temporary restraining order and emergency asset freeze in yet another alleged Ponzi scheme, this one a $485 million offering fraud run by three individuals (Paul R. Melbye, Brendan W. Coughlin and Henry...

New York AG Announces Two More Assurances of Discontinuance in ARS Settlements

Posted on July 07, 2009
The New York Attorney General announced Assurances of Discontinuance with Credit Suisse Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated relating to the auction rate securities settlements reached last summer. The Assurances detail how the firms have and...

Former HealthSouth CFO Speaks on Ethics

Posted on July 06, 2009
CFO.com runs an interview with Aaron Beam, a former HealthSouth CFO who admitted to cooking the books during 1996-97 and who served three months in a minimum security prison. He is currently mowing lawns and speaking to business students on...

Schwartz on Mutual Fund Conflicts

Posted on July 05, 2009
Mutual Fund Conflicts of Interest in the Wake of the Short-Term Trading Scandals: Encouraging Structural Change Through Shareholder Choice, by Jeff Schwartz, California Western School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This piece contends that...

Vega on SOX Whistleblowers

Posted on July 05, 2009
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act & the Culture of Bribery: Expanding the Scope of Private Whistleblower Suits to Overseas Employees, by Matt A Vega, Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This....

SEC Blew Chance to Expose Madoff's Fraud in 2004

Posted on July 02, 2009
Fascinating article in today's Washington Post: Zachary Goldfarb reports that in 2004 an SEC staff attorney in Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (who previously worked at the American Stock Exchange and understood complicated trading strategies) figured out that there was something...

SEC Proposes Revisions to Proxy Disclosures on Compensation and Corporate Governance

Posted on July 01, 2009
The SEC proposed a set of rule revisions intended to improve the disclosure provided to shareholders of public companies regarding compensation and corporate governance matters in proxy and information statements. They include information about: The relationship of a company's overall...

SEC Votes to Eliminate Broker Discretionary Voting for Uncontested Directors' Elections

Posted on July 01, 2009
The SEC voted to approve an NYSE proposal that would eliminate broker discretionary voting for all elections of directors, whether contested or not. Currently, NYSE Rule 452 and corresponding Listed Company Manual Section 401.08 permit brokers to vote on behalf...

SEC Charges Former Beazer Homes Accounting Officer with Multi-Year Fraud

Posted on July 01, 2009
The SEC filed a civil complaint against Michael T. Rand, the former chief accounting officer of Atlanta-based home builder Beazer Homes, USA, Inc., alleging that he conducted a multi-year fraudulent earnings management scheme and misled Beazer?s outside auditors and internal...

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