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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 361-370 out of 709 results

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - April 19th, 2013

(Apr 2013)

SEC Files Subpoena Enforcement Action Against Andrew Farmer and Iridium Capital, Ltd. for Failure To Produce Documents in Market Manipulation Investigation
April 18, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22680)
Last week, the SEC filed a subpoena enforcement action against Andrew Farmer and Iridium Capital, Ltd. "According to the filing, the SEC is investigating possible market manipulation in connection with transactions in the securities of Chimera Energy Corporation." Subpoenas were issued last...

Taking the Teeth out of the STOCK Act

(Apr 2013)

NPR reported earlier this week that Congress has quietly overhauled important provisions of the STOCK Act . For those that don't know, the STOCK ("Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge") Act was signed into law in April 2012 and sought to prevent "Members of Congress and employees of Congress from using nonpublic information derived from their official positions for personal benefit, and for other purposes."

The STOCK Act was supposed to prevent Members and Congressional staff from trading...

FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch for Failing to Provide Best Execution to Customers

(Apr 2013)

FINRA announced yesterday that it has fined Merrill Lynch more than one million dollars "for failing to provide best execution in certain customer transactions involving non-convertible preferred securities executed on one of its proprietary order management systems (ML BondMarket)" as well as inadequate supervision.

FINRA's Department of Market Regulation found what amounts to a systematic issue in the ML BondMarket software that prevented customer orders from being evaluated at the most...

New Study Comparing Indexed and Actively Managed Funds

(Apr 2013)

NerdWallet, a San Francisco based personal investing site, has performed a historical study of the returns on almost 8,000 mutual funds and ETFs over a ten year period and found that passive indexed funds tend to outperform actively managed funds on average. In fact, they found that only 24% of actively managed funds outperformed the average return of the indexed funds. These results are consistent with the annual SPIVA Scorecard produced by S&P Dow Jones Indices, which found in both 2012...

Major Tenants-in-Common Sponsor Charged with Fraud

(Apr 2013)

Four former executives of DBSI, one of the largest sponsors of tenants-in-common (TIC) interests, have been indicted on 83 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen property. The indictment is seeking approximately $169 million in forfeiture of properties and assets, alleging that the executives misrepresented the financial condition of DBSI to potential investors. The executives named wereformer president Douglas Swenson, general counsel...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - April 12th, 2013

(Apr 2013)

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Glenn Hoppes, United States Energy Corp., TN-KY Development Fund LP, TN-KY Development Fund II LP and TN-KY Development Fund III LP
April 8, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22669)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), Glenn Hoppes and four companies he controls ("United States Energy Corp., TN-KY Development Fund LP, TN-KY Development Fund II LP, and TN-KY Development Fund III LP") fraudulently offered "unregistered investments in oil drilling projects"...

Credit Spread Futures and the Futurization of CDS

(Apr 2013)

Yesterday S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the launch of three credit spread indices based upon constituents of the S&P 500. The indices are part of a suite of indices that "are designed to track the credit default swap market for global corporate credits, including those in distinct Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) sectors and sub-industries".*

S&P Dow Jones licensed the indices to the electronic exchange trueEX-- "the world's first CFTC-designated, Dodd-Frank compliant...

CFTC Investigating Potential Manipulation in Interest Rate Swap Market

(Apr 2013)

Bloomberg's Matthew Leising is reporting that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued subpoenas to current and former employees at swap brokerage firm ICAP (IAP) "and as many as 15 Wall Street banks" for alleged manipulation of a key benchmark price in the interest rate swap market.

The benchmark, known as ISDAfix, "provides average mid-market swap rates for six major currencies at selected maturities on a daily basis." Similar to LIBOR, the rates are set based on end-of-day...

Fees on Structured Products Rise as Sales Increase

(Apr 2013)

Kevin Dugan recently reported that fees on structured products linked to stocks have risen to their highest level in three years. In particular Kevin notes that "issuers and underwriters earned $137.7 million in disclosed fees, or 1.95 percent of the $7.08 billion of equity-tied securities" that have a stated commission. Average fees have ranged from less than 1.5% to nearly 2% over the past three years.

The increase in average fees is likely due to the increase in average term for products...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - April 5th, 2013

(Apr 2013)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former Chief Investment Officer ofGibraltarAsset Management Group, LLC
April 3, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22665)
A final judgment was entered against Maurice G. Taylor in relation to charges that he collaborated with Garfield M. Taylor, Benjamin C. Dalley, Randolph M. Taylor, William B. Mitchell, and Jeffrey A. King in a "multi-million dollar Washington-area Ponzi scheme operated through Gibraltar Asset Management Group, LLC and Garfield Taylor, Inc." The...

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