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Displaying 61-70 out of 73 results for "Muni Arb".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 1st, 2013

Defendant Adam S. Rosengard Settles SEC Charges in Penny Stock Manipulation Case
February 27, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22626)
A final judgment was entered this Monday against Adam S. Rosengard for his alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme. According to the SEC's original complaint, Pawel P. Dynkowski and other defendants manipulated the price of Xtreme Motorsports of California, Inc.'s stock through "wash sales, matched orders and other manipulative trading." Rosengard then...

Evolution of Absolute Return Structured Products

From 2006 to 2009, a type of structured product known as an absolute return barrier note (ARBN) was issued by a variety of major investment banks. ARBNs are interesting because they are linked to the absolute value of the return on an underlying, not just its return, and therefore are considered non-directional bets. We've done a lot of work on ARBNs here at SLCG, including a research paper that values a sample of ARBNs and finds they are worth on average 4.5% less than their purchase price...

SEC Examination Priorities 2013

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced their examination priorities for 2013 "to communicate with investors and registrants about areas that are perceived by the staff to have heightened risk, and to support the SEC's mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."

For those that are unfamiliar, SEC staff conducts examinations of SEC registrants through their regional offices and headquarters

to determine...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 15th, 2013

Court Enters Final Judgments Against Former Wall Street Banker, Downstream Russian Trader and Trader's Wife in Insider Trading Scheme
February 13, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22617)
A final judgment has been entered against Alexander Vorobiev and his wife, "relief defendant Tatiana Vorobieva," for their involvement in an insider trading scheme that resulted in over $1 million in illegal profits. Vorobiev traded using insider information regarding "numerous health care-related acquisitions,...

Mis-sold Interest Rate Hedges

The Financial Services Authority (FSA), Britain's highest financial regulatory agency, has ordered Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and Royal Bank of Scotland to review all of their interest rate linked swap agreements sold to small businesses. In an investigation, the FSA found that four banks had violated at least one of its rules in over 90% of the 173 cases reviewed. The London Evening Standard is reporting that seven other banks may also launch similar reviews.

Interest rate swaps -- and related...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 8th, 2013

Steven Harrold Settles SEC Insider Trading Charges
February 6, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22613)
Afinal judgment was entered against Steven Harrold, former executive at a Coca-Cola bottling company, for his alleged insider trading "based on confidential information he learned on the job" concerning Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.'s planned acquisition of The Coca-Cola Company's " bottling operations in Norway and Sweden. "The judgment permanently enjoins Harrold from future violations of various...

Call Options on Hedge Funds: Double Markups and Detrimental Mispricing

A recently settled FINRA Arbitration case was brought by an investor who was sold a $2M call option on a basket of hedge funds by a large investment bank. The case was notable for two reasons. First, the investment bank charged a 25 percent markup on the fair value of the option. This large amount was charged even though the investment bank -- call it Investment Bank 1 -- simultaneously laid off all of its risk by buying an equivalent call option from another investment bank -- call it...

Oppenheimer to Pay US Airways $30 Million over Auction Rate Securities

Oppenheimer & Co. has been ordered by a FINRA arbitration panel to pay US Airways $30 million in damages related to the purchase of several series of structured auction rate securities (ARS). The story is being covered by Caitlin Nish at the Wall Street Journal, Bill Singer at Forbes, and Keith Goldberg at Law360. You can find the US Airways v Oppenheimer award on our website.

ARS are debt instruments that paid interest rates that reflect the clearing prices of regular auctions. Oppenheimer...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review -February 1st, 2013

SEC Charges Five Former Executives of Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas in $300 Million Real Estate Investment Fraud
January 30, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22607)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas' former executives, Fred Davis Clark, Jr., Cristal R. Coleman, David W. Schwarz, Barry J. Graham, and Ricky Lynn Stokes conducted "an offering fraud and Ponzi scheme that raised more than $300 million from nearly 1,400 investors nationwide." Allegedly, from 2004...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - January 25th, 2013

Randy M. Cho Sentenced to Prison Term of 12 Years in Criminal Action
January 24, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22601)
Randy M. Cho was sentenced in a criminal action to 12 years in federal prison on charges of "perpetrating an investment scheme between 2001 and October 2009, which resulted in almost $8 million in losses from 57 investors." In addition to the prison sentence, Cho has been ordered to pay restitution of almost $8 million. In 2009, the SEC permanently enjoined Cho from violating...

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