Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - June 19th, 2015
(Jun 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
Swiss Trader to Pay $2.8 Million to Settle Insider Trading Charges
June 15, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 119)
The SEC alleges that Swiss trader Helmut Ansheringer bought stock and call options based on non-public information that AuthenTec, a company that provides fingerprint sensors and software, would be purchased by Apple Inc. AuthenTec's public announcement that they would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple led to a roughly 60% increase in their stock...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - June 5th, 2015
(Jun 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
Merrill Lynch Admits Using Inaccurate Data for Short Sale Orders, Agrees to $11 Million Settlement
June 1, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 105)
An SEC investigation found some of Merrill Lynch's programs to execute short sale trades were using inaccurate and old data. Merrill Lynch and other broker-dealers are required to maintain an up to date easy-to-borrow (ETB) list composed of stocks that are readily accessible to borrow for short sale orders. Merrill Lynch...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - May 29th, 2015
(May 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Deutsche Bank With Misstating Financial Reports During Financial Crisis
May 26, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 99)
Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to pay a $55 million penalty to settle charges that they overvalued a portfolio of derivatives by failing to properly value their "gap risk". The derivatives portfolio in question contained "Leveraged Super Senior" (LSS) trades that Deutsche Bank used in order to buy protection against credit default losses. The...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - April 17th, 2015
(Apr 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Halts Investment Scheme Targeting Military Personnel
April 14, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 66)
The SEC has charged Leroy Brown Jr. and his firm, LB Stocks and Trades Advice LLC, with securities fraud and conducting an unregistered securities offering and ordered an asset freeze against Brown. Brown fabricated his stock broking experience to prospective clients telling them that he had many years of experience in securities and that he had all the necessary...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - February 13th, 2015
(Feb 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Proposes Rules for Hedging Disclosure
February 9, 2015(Litigation Release No. 26)
The SEC has announced the approval of the issuance of proposed rules. The proposed rules require a company to disclose whether its directors, officers, and other employees are permitted to hedge the company's equity securities. The proposed rules are mandated by Section 955 of the Dodd-Frank Act, and the rules are intended to better inform shareholders by increasing the...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 30th, 2015
(Jan 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Oppenheimer With Securities Law Violations Related to Improper Penny Stock Sales
January 27, 2015 (Litigation Release No. 14)
The SEC has charged Oppenheimer & Co. with breaking federal securities law over illegal sales of penny stocks. They are accused of allowing non-registered sales in their accounts, ignoring red-flags and failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports. Gibralter Global Securities, a Bahamas-based brokerage firm, is one customer alleged...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 2nd, 2015
(Jan 2015)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Announces Charges Against N.Y.-Based Firm and Three Executives Accused of Siphoning Investor Money
December 29, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 294)
The SEC has charged VERO Capital Management, its president, general counsel, and CFO with channeling investors' money into a side venture. Robert Geiger, George Barbaresi and Steven Downey managed a pair of funds invested primarily in mortgage-backed securities at VERO Capital Management. The SEC alleges that, while in...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 12th, 2014
(Dec 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules
December 8, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 272)
The SEC sanctioned the following firms for violating auditor's independence criteria: BKD LLP, Boros & Farrington Accountancy Corporation, Brace & Associates PLLC, Robert Cooper & Company CPA PC, Lally & Co LLC, Lerner & Sipkin CPAs LLP, OUM & Co LLP, and Joseph Yafeh CPA Inc. While performing audits for their broker-dealer clients, these firms...
FINRA Enforcement Actions: Month in Review
(Jun 2014)
MAY 2014 SELECTED FINRA ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FIRMS FINED
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC (CRD #14020, Chicago, Illinois)
ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC consented to a censure and $95,000 fine for allegedly failing "to report short interest positions to the New York Stock Exchange and FINRA on certain settlement dates, and submitt[ing] to FINRA an inaccurate short-interest position report." FINRA found that the firm's supervisory system did not provide for supervision reasonably designed to achieve...
Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - May 2nd, 2014
(May 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Charges Barry R. Bekkedam with Defrauding Investment Advisory Clients in Connection with Multimillion Dollar Rothstein Ponzi Scheme
April 30, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22983)
According to the complaint, Barry R. Bekkedam, former SEC-registered investment advisor and former owner, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Ballamor Capital Management, LLC, "fraudulently induced, or assisted in inducing, his advisory clients and others to invest approximately...
