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Securities Law Prof Blog

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Post Frequency: 38.1/day

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

Study Reports Companies Did Not Write Down ARS

Posted on February 18, 2009
Nearly 30% of public companies holding auction rate securities are reporting them at full par value, according to a study conducted by researchers at Pluris Valuation Advisers and Villanova University, and many companies that did write them down did not...

FINRA Fines Robert W. Baird & Co. for Fee-Based Accounts Violations

Posted on February 18, 2009
FINRA announced that it has fined Robert W. Baird & Co. $500,000 for supervisory violations relating to its fee-based brokerage business. FINRA also ordered Baird to return $434,510 in fees, plus interest, to 154 customers. Those customers either paid fees...

SEC Commissioner Walter Speaks on Corporate Governance Issues

Posted on February 18, 2009
SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter spoke today in New York on "Restoring Investor Trust through Corporate Governance." Topics included proxy access, enhanced disclosure on director nominees, e-proxies, broker votes and say-on-pay.

SEC Charges Former Colorado Broker with Running a Ponzi Scheme

Posted on February 18, 2009
The SEC filed securities fraud charges against former registered representative, William L. Walters for operating a Ponzi scheme promising annual returns ranging from 20% to 40%. According to the Complaint, from 2003 through 2006, Walters raised approximately $16...

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UBS Settles SEC Charges It Facilitated Clients' Tax Avoidance

Posted on February 18, 2009
The SEC filed an enforcement action against UBS AG, charging the firm with acting as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser. According to its complaint, UBS's conduct facilitated the ability of certain U.S. clients to maintain undisclosed accounts in Switzerland...

Research in Motion Limited Settles Backdating Charges with SEC

Posted on February 17, 2009
The SEC charged Ontario, Canada, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Limited (RIM) and four of its senior executives with stock option backdating. The SEC's complaint alleges that RIM, its former Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kavelman, former Vice President of Finance...

SEC Charges Stanford Int'l Bank with $8 Billion Fraud

Posted on February 17, 2009
On February 16, 2009, the federal district court in the Northern District of Texas, at the request of the SEC, entered a TRO against Robert Allen Stanford and three of his companies, the Antiguan-based Stanford International Bank (SIB), Houston based...

Chamber of Commerce Releases Report to Improve SEC

Posted on February 17, 2009
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness recently released a report, Examining the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While recent criticisms of the agency have focused on agency's failures to prevent the...

Should the SEC be more like the CIA?

Posted on February 16, 2009
Professor Donald Langevoort, Georgetown University Law School, recommends that the SEC "has a lot to learn" from the CIA's methods of gathering information. His comments were part of a program on the future of financial regulation presented last week at...

First Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Fraud Charges Against Three Former Employees of Putnam Fiduciary Trust

Posted on February 16, 2009
The SEC recently announced that on February 6, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a federal district court decision dismissing a civil fraud action against three former executives of Putnam Fiduciary Trust Company (PFTC),...

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Will Pay Big Bucks to Brokers

Posted on February 16, 2009
Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will pay $3 billion in retention payments to top-producing brokers to keep them from being lured away from the firm, reports the Wall St. Journal. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup to Give Brokers Big Retention Fees

Niemeier for SEC Chief Accountant?

Posted on February 16, 2009
The CFO Blog reports the rumor that current PCAOB member Charles Niemeier will be appointed the SEC's Chief Accountant. This is important because Niemeier opposed past Chair Cox's accelerated timetable for adoption of IFRS. Mary Schapiro has already distanced herself...

Frankel on Examinations of Market Intermediaries

Posted on February 15, 2009
Regulating the Financial Markets by Examinations, by Tamar Frankel, Boston University School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract:This Essay proposes changing future government examinations of market intermediaries and focusing on bubbles and crashes as the...

Greenfield on Choice in Corporate Law

Posted on February 15, 2009
Corporate Law and the Rhetoric of Choice, by Kent Greenfield, Boston College Law School, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract:Rhetorically, the notion of choice has always been a powerful one in politics and law. This essay is...

Colombo on Secondary Actors in Securities Fraud

Posted on February 15, 2009
Cooperation with Securities Fraud, by Ronald J. Colombo, Hofstra University - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract:Secondary actors, such as lawyers, accountants, and bankers, are oftentimes critical players in securities fraud...

Krawiec on the Rogue Trader

Posted on February 15, 2009
The Return of the Rogue, by Kimberly D. Krawiec, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract:The rogue trader - a figure that captured public attention in the...

Brokerage Pay Under Government Scrutiny

Posted on February 13, 2009
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is looking into pay practices, such as retention bonuses and recruitment packages, at the retail brokerage units of financial institutions that have received federal bailout money. InvNews, House committee explores payouts at...

SEC Fines SG Americas Securities for Failure to Supervise Former Managing Director

Posted on February 13, 2009
In the Matter of SG Americas Securities, LLC and Francois O. Barthelemy: On February 13, the SEC issued an Order Imposing Remedial Sanctions (Order) against SG Americas Securities, LLC (SGAS) and Francois O. Barthelemy (Barthelemy). The Order finds that SGAS...

Ruth Madoff Withdrew $15.5 Million before Husband's Arrest

Posted on February 12, 2009
Ruth Madoff, Bernard's wife, reportedly withdrew $15.5 million from a brokerage account in the weeks before her husband's arrest, $10 million of it the day before. NYTimes, Wife Withdrew Millions Before Madoff?s Arrest.

FINRA Fines Wachovia For Mutual Fund and UIT Suitability Violations

Posted on February 12, 2009
FINRA announced today that it has fined two Wachovia units more than $4.5 million for violations related to the sales of mutual funds and Unit Investment Trusts (UIT). Wachovia Securities was fined $4.41 million for its failure to provide investors...

SEC Enjoins Meridian Holdings from Fraud, Books & Records Violations

Posted on February 12, 2009
The SEC announced today that the United States District Court for the Central District of California entered final judgments, by consent, permanently enjoining Meridian Holdings, Inc. ("Meridian"), Anthony C. Dike ("Dike") and Michelle V. Nguyen ("Nguyen") from future violations of...

SEC Issues Final Rule on Interactive Data for Mutual Fund Risk/Return

Posted on February 12, 2009
The SEC issued its final rule on INTERACTIVE DATA FOR MUTUAL FUND RISK/RETURN Here is the summary:We are adopting rule amendments requiring mutual funds to provide risk/return summary information in a form that is intended to improve its usefulness to...

SEC Charges Canadian with Manipulating Stocks of Four Companies

Posted on February 12, 2009
The SEC announced that today it charged George Georgiou, of Toronto, Ontario, with manipulating the market in four separate microcap stocks ? Avicena Group, Inc., Neutron Enterprises, Inc., Hydrogen Hybrid Technologies, Inc., and Northern Ethanol, Inc...

ITT Settles FCPA Charges Involving Chinese Contracts

Posted on February 11, 2009
The SEC filed a settled civil injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against ITT Corporation ("ITT"), a New York-based global multi-industry company, alleging violations of Section 13(b)(2)(A) and (B) of the Securities Exchange Act...

SEC Settles with Four Individuals Charged with Insider Trading in Dick's Sporting Goods Stock

Posted on February 11, 2009
The SEC announced that on February 6, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania entered Final Judgments against four individuals charged with insider trading in advance of Dick's Sporting Goods Inc.'s June 21, 2004, announcement that...

KBR and Halliburton Settle FCPA Charges Involving Nigerian Contracts

Posted on February 11, 2009
The SEC announced settlements with KBR, Inc. and Halliburton Co. to resolve SEC charges that KBR subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root LLC bribed Nigerian government officials over a 10-year period, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), in...

Cuomo Says Nearly 700 Merrill Lynch Employees Received at least $1 Million Bonus Payments

Posted on February 11, 2009
In a letter to Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo states that, "in a surprising fit of corporate irresponsibility," Merrill Lynch decided secretly to move up the planned date...

SEC Settles Financial Fraud Charges Against Former MetLife Officer

Posted on February 10, 2009
The SEC announced that on February 9, 2009, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a final judgment by consent against Thom A. Faria, the last defendant in a financial fraud case filed in April 2006....

SEC Charges Three with Pump and Dump Scheme

Posted on February 10, 2009
The SEC filed a civil enforcement action against Tulsa attorney George David Gordon; Dallas, Texas resident Joshua Lankford; and Canadian Dean Sheptycki for their roles in a scheme to defraud the public by manipulating the share prices of three penny...

SEC Charges Hedge Fund Managers with Fraud

Posted on February 10, 2009
The SEC filed a civil injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York charging Grant Ivan Grieve, Finvest Asset Management, LLC ("FAM") and Finvest Fund Management, LLC ("FFM") with fraud in connection with...

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