Criminal Law

PCAOB to KPMG: Time to Shape Up
Auditors have been lobbying Congress for the imposition of liability caps ever since the collapse of Arthur Anderson in 2002 but a recent Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("PCAOB") report on KPMG confirms that auditors need accountability for the procedures...

Broker-Dealer Settles Charges It Intervened in ARS Auctions
The SEC settled administrative proceedings against broker-dealer First Southwest Co., which, as part of its broker-dealer business, underwrote and managed a limited number of auctions for auction rate securities...

SEC Charges Moscow Broker Dealer with Soliciting Sales of Russian Stock
The SEC charged a Moscow-based unregistered broker-dealer for registration and reporting violations, alleging that it solicited institutional investors in the U.S. to purchase and sell small cap stocks of Russian companies without registering as a broker-dealer with the SEC or...

FINRA Issues Guidance on Broker/Dealer Obligations regarding SPACs
FINRA Issues Guidance on Broker/Dealer Obligations regarding SPACs Recently, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 08-54, which provides guidance on the structure, trends and broker/dealer conflicts of interest associated with SPACs...

New Auditors Reports without Audits
In order to make auditing firms more transparent to the investing public, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (?PCAOB?) recently adopted rules that will require firms to file with the PCAOB their own annual reports and special interim reports...

Fanto on Broker-Dealer Professionalism in IPOs
The Continuing Need for Broker-Dealer Professionalism in IPOs, by JAMES A. FANTO, Brooklyn Law School, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this essay, I contend that the IPO process and its abuses of the late 1990s...

Real Estate Brokers
Questions home sellers should ask potential brokers

Real Estate Brokers
The role brokersplay

Alabama Suzuki Dealer
Faces Class Action

Wesley A. Snyder et al.
alleging the consultants perpetrated a Ponzi scheme by encouraging borrowers to lend more than they needed.

Wachovia
to Pay $39 Million in Proposed Settlement of Stock Broker Overtime Class Action

National Association of Realtors
Settlement reached in broker listing antitrust lawsuit, pending court approval.