FINRA Fines Citigroup, UBS and Deutche Bank $425,000

FINRA fined Citigroup, UBS an Deutshe Bank $425,000 in connection with each of the firm’s failure to supervise communications with their customers in the initial public offering of Vonage in May 2006. Each of these firms were part of the syndicate in the offering of Vonage. According to FINRA, the firms failed to esstablish adequate [...]

Aribitrations at FINRA up 65% YTD

4991 aribitration cases have been recieved by FINRA from January to August 2009 which surpassed the entire year of 2008 of 4982. Complaints were submitted mostly for negligence with 2341 claims yo 46% over 2008. Mutual Funds had the higher number of cases with 1173 complaints up 26% from last year.
www.onwallstreet.com/news/finra-arbitrations-rise-2663936-1.html

EX-Morgan Stanley Rep Barred from FINRA

Former Morgan Stanley Broker John Mullins was barred from FINRA for stealing over $11,000 from the charitable foundation of a 97 year old client. Kathleen Mullens his wife and registered rep with Morgan Stanley was also found guilty of borrowing money from the client without the approval of Morgan Stanley and also misleading statements on [...]

FINRA Bars Brokers in Multi-Million-Dollar Ponzi Schemes

FINRA has permanently barred two brokers for running multi-million-dollar Ponzi schemes that victimized a wide range of investors, including elderly individuals, mentally and physically impaired individuals, church members, and family members.
Oren Eugene Sullivan, Jr. was accused of misappropriating approx $3.7 million in a decades-long Ponzi scheme involving more then 30 clients (widows, Alzheimer’s victims, and [...]

SEC going Self Funding

The SEC is considering going self funding to address budgetary and cash flow concerns of the agency. SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro believes that a self funding model would be more beneficial to the organization as it would allow them to better manage their budgetary constraints. The self funding would be derived from fees collected through [...]

FINRA updates

FINRA has announced that it has postponed the enforcement of its new FTC Red Flag rules until November 1, 2009. These new rules are specific to customer protection from identity theft.
FINRA has also announced that the California IOUs that were recently issued by the financially troubled state to cover some of its debts are [...]

Is the FINRA Arbitration System Dying???

With the recent downturn in the markets, there has been a corresponding increase in customer arbitration filings with FINRA. From January to May 31, 2009 there has been a reported 3186 new cases representing an increase of 85% over the same period the year before.
As Ponzi schemes and other regulatory issues come to light, [...]

Tough decision for SEC

To be, or not to be? This is the question… knowing that many times taxpayers have partial ownership in companies due to needed bailouts; would SEC consider it ethical to use taxpayer funds to protect investors?
“Even though Bank of America has gotten TARP bailout money, it managed to settle a $33 million civil suit with [...]

SEC Rule on ‘Naked’ Short-Selling Now Permanent

That’s right, Traders! SEC has made their naked short-selling rule permanent. Now traders must have the borrowed stock in possession before short-selling it. Traders can no longer short-sell a stock before borrowing it from their corresponding brokerage house’s margin department. Check out the story below.
www.cnbc.com/id/32174786

FINRA Fines for Improper Fund, Annuity and UIT sales

FINRA has fined 5 broker dealers $1.65 Million for the lack of supervision in the sale of mutual funds, variable annuities and unit investment trusts. In most of the cases, the lack of supervision was in the sale of these products to elderly people.
The five firms fined were: McDonald Investment ($424,000), IFMG Securities ($450,000), [...]

« Previous Page