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Post Frequency: 38.1/day

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

SEC Settles Charges Against Citigroup and Two Former Officers Involving Subprime Mortgage-Related Assets

Posted on August 03, 2010
The SEC and Citigroup Inc.settled charges that Citigroup misled investors about the extent of the company's exposure to sub-prime mortgage-related assets during 2007. According to the SEC, between July 20, 2007 and November 4, 2007, in response to intense investor...

SEC Charges Wyly Brothers with Securities Fraud

Posted on August 03, 2010
The SEC brought an action charging that Samuel E. Wyly and his brother, Charles J. Wyly, Jr. (hereinafter the "Wylys"), engaged in a 13-year fraudulent scheme to hold and trade tens of millions of securities of public companies while they...

SEC Seeks Public Comment on Investment Advice Study

Posted on August 03, 2010
The SEC published a request for public comment to inform its study of the obligations and standards of care of broker-dealers and investment advisers providing personalized investment advice about securities to retail investors. The study is required under the Dodd-Frank...

SEC Seeks Public Comment on Regulatory Reform

Posted on August 03, 2010
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act includes provisions that require the SEC to undertake various initiatives, including rulemaking and studies touching on many areas of financial regulation. The SEC has set up a website where members of...

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SEC's Corp Finance Waives Reg AB's Requirement of Ratings Disclosure for 6 Months

Posted on July 23, 2010
The SEC's Division of Corporate Finance issued the following no-action position yesterday: Items 1103(a)(9) and 1120 of Regulation AB require disclosure of whether an issuance or sale of any class of offered asset-backed securities is conditioned on the assignment of...

Going Fishing -- Until August 3

Posted on July 23, 2010
Happy dog days of summer!

Feinberg Releases Final Report on Bankers' Bonuses

Posted on July 23, 2010
Kenneth Feinberg, in one of his final acts as the TARP Special Master on Executive Compensation, released a Congressionally-mandated review of 2008-2009 bonuses paid to investment banks and found that many of them were excessive. He did not, however, determine...

Sunrise Senior Living Settles Accountin Fraud Charges with SEC

Posted on July 23, 2010
The SEC settled charges against Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., a Virginia-based owner and manager of assisted living facilities whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and former Sunrise officers, Larry E. Hulse and Kenneth J. Abod. The...

SEC Pays $1 Million Award to Informants in Pequot Capital Insider Trading Case

Posted on July 23, 2010
The SEC today announced the award of $1 million to Glen Kaiser and Karen Kaiser of Southbury, Connecticut, who provided information and documents leading to the imposition and collection of civil penalties in SEC v. Pequot Capital Management, Inc., et...

FINRA Fines Sun Trust for Unsuitable UIT, CEF and Mutual Fund Transactions

Posted on July 22, 2010
FINRA has ordered SunTrust Investment Services, Inc. of Atlanta, GA, to pay $1.44 million to resolve charges related to unsuitable unit investment trust (UIT), closed-end fund (CEF) and mutual fund transactions. Of that amount, $900,000 is a fine that includes...

SEC Staff Report Recommends Improved Regulation of Life Settlements

Posted on July 22, 2010
The SEC released a staff report recommending that life settlements be clearly defined as securities so that the investors in these transactions are protected under the federal securities laws. A life settlement is a transaction in which an individual with...

SEC, Dell and Michael Dell Settle Accounting Fraud Charges

Posted on July 22, 2010
The SEC, and Dell Inc.settled charges that Dell failed to disclose material information to investors and used fraudulent accounting to make it falsely appear that the company was consistently meeting Wall Street earnings targets and reducing its operating expenses...

Madoff Trustee Sues Fairfield Greenwich Affiliates

Posted on July 21, 2010
The court-appointed Trustee for Bernard Madoff, charged with the responsibility of recovering assets for his creditors, sued more than two dozen affiliates of Fairfield Greenwich Group and its founding partners, alleging that they had "actual and constructive knowledge" of the...

President Signs Dodd-Frank

Posted on July 21, 2010
President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation today. For media coverage see NYTimes, Obama Signs Legislation Overhauling Financial Rules WPost, Obama signs sweeping financial overhaul into law WSJ, Obama Signs Financial-Regulation Bill

Ohio and New York Pension Plans Sue BP

Posted on July 21, 2010
Ohio and New York public pension plans have filed a complaint in federal court (W.D. La.) against BP PLC, alleging material misstatements in connection with its safety record. The plans hope to be lead plaintiffs in a securities fraud class...

SEC Proposes New Regulation of Mutual Fund Distribution Fees

Posted on July 21, 2010
Will the SEC finally take action to get rid of 12b-1 fees? The SEC today voted unanimously to propose measures aimed to improve the regulation of mutual fund distribution fees and provide better disclosure for investors. The marketing and selling...

SEC Adopts Improved Disclosure about Investment Advisers

Posted on July 21, 2010
The SEC today voted unanimously to adopt changes to the principal disclosure document that SEC-registered investment advisers must provide to their clients and prospective clients. Form ADV, Part 2 ? commonly referred to as the ?brochure? ? explains to the...

FINRA Fines Deutsche Bank Securities $7.5 Million for Negligent Misrepresentations about Subprime Securities

Posted on July 21, 2010
FINRA fined Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. $7.5 million for negligently misrepresenting delinquency data in connection with the issuance of subprime securities. FINRA found that Deutsche Bank Securities negligently misrepresented and underreported the percentages of mortgages that were delinquent in the...

Schapiro Testifies on SEC's Present Reforms and Future Challenges

Posted on July 20, 2010
SEC Chair Schapiro, in Testimony Concerning Oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Evaluating Present Reforms and Future Challenges before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises on...

FINRA Files Revised Discovery Guide with SEC

Posted on July 19, 2010
FINRA recently filed with the SEC its proposed new Discovery Guide which includes new Document Production Lists. This revision of the Discovery Guide has been a long time in the works and is the product of much discussion among FINRA...

FINRA Extends Pilot Program Allowing All-Public Arbitrator Panels for a Third Year

Posted on July 19, 2010
FINRA recently announced an extension of its voluntary pilot program of allowing investors in arbitrations with 3-person arbitration panels against participating firms to select all-Public Arbitrator panels. Initially, the Pilot Program was designed to run for two sequential years...

SEC Approves FINRA Rule Allowing Witnesses to have Legal Representation

Posted on July 19, 2010
The SEC approved FINRA's proposed rule change to amend Rule 12602 of the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes and Rule 13602 of the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes to provide that a non-party witness may be...

AIG Agrees to Pay $725 Million to Settle Claims Brought by Ohio Pension Funds

Posted on July 17, 2010
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced a $725 million securities class action settlement against American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and certain individual directors and officers. The settlement resolves allegations of AIG?s wide-ranging fraud from October 1999 to April 2005 involving...

Langevoort on Psychology of Financial Risk-Taking

Posted on July 17, 2010
Chasing the Greased Pig Down Wall Street: A Gatekeeper?s Guide to the Psychology, Culture and Ethics of Financial Risk-Taking, by Donald C. Langevoort, Georgetown University Law Center, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The current financial crisis...

Files on SEC Enforcement

Posted on July 17, 2010
SEC Enforcement: Does Forthright Disclosure and Cooperation Really Matter?, by Rebecca Files, University of Texas at Dallas, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This study examines the conditions under which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) exercises...

Colombo on Williams Act Disclosure

Posted on July 17, 2010
Effectuating Disclosure Under the Williams Act, by Ronald J. Colombo, Hofstra University - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The importance of adequate, timely disclosure of critical information to investors and the capital markets...

AIG Plans Stock Offering to Pay Ohio Funds Settlement

Posted on July 17, 2010
How is AIG going to pay the $725 million settlement with the Ohio pension funds? According to AIG's 8-K Report: Under the terms of the Settlement, if consummated, AIG will pay an aggregate of $725 million, $175 million of which...

SEC and Trident Microsystems Settle Options Backdating Charges

Posted on July 16, 2010
Backdating stock options is such old news, but the SEC announced the settlement of charges against Trident Microsystems, Inc., a Santa Clara, California-based provider of integrated circuits, Trident's founder and former Chief Executive Officer, Frank C...

Views on Goldman Settlement

Posted on July 16, 2010
The consensus on the SEC-Goldman settlement is that the bank got off easy (one headline described it as a "token" settlement), but it may have enhanced the SEC's reputation, so win-win. Here is a representative sampling of the press: InvNews,...

SEC Press Conference on Goldman Settlement

Posted on July 15, 2010
Robert Khuzami, SEC Enforcement Division Director, emphasized the following points in his remarks at the press conference announcing the Goldman settlement: Largest penalty every -- $300 million, plus $250 million in restitution Settlement achieves goals of deterrence and accountability...

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