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

Displaying 31-40 out of 42 results for "Excessive Markups".

Call Options on Hedge Funds: Double Markups and Detrimental Mispricing

(Feb 2013)

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...

FINRA Fines and Suspends David Lerner for Apple REIT Ten Misrepresentations

(Oct 2012)

Today, FINRA fined David Lerner Associates $14 million, including $12 million in restitution to investors, for charging excessive markups and misleading investors in a non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) known as Apple REIT Ten. They also suspended David Lerner himself for one year from the securities industry and for two more years from acting as principal for a securities firm. From the news release:

As the sole distributor of the Apple REITs, DLA solicited thousands of...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - October 5th, 2012

(Oct 2012)

SEC Charges Unlicensed Financial Advisor James S. Quay for Defrauding Investors in Atlanta Area
October 4, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22506)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), James S. Quay, along with his brother Jeffrey A. Quay, conducted a scheme in which they convinced two elderly women to invest $560,000 into a sham limited partnership called Trinity Charitable Solutions. Quay, who has a history of defrauding the elderly, claimed the funds would be used to operate the program,...

Poor Incentives and Predatory Lending in Municipal Finance

(Aug 2012)

Last year, Poway Unified School District had a problem. A decade earlier, it had started a program to modernize its aging schools. In 2008, voters had approved additional funding for the project under the condition that the school board could not raise taxes further. Unfortunately, by 2011, the project needed an additional $105 million to complete. But because they could not raise taxes, they could not issue the kind of tax-backed bonds (called general obligation bonds) that usually fund...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 4th, 2012

(May 2012)

SEC Charges Two Former Investor Seminar Salespeople with Securities Law Violations
May 1, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22354)
This week, the SEC filed a settled civil injunctive action against Darlene Nelson Powell and Robert Eldridge -- independent contractors of Long Term-Short Term Inc. (BetterTrades) -- derived from allegations that the two made misrepresentations concerning their trading experience. As a result, legitimate investors purchased instructional courses and mentoring programs...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review (Part II) - March 16th, 2012

(Mar 2012)

Due to the high volume of litigation releases from the Securities and Exchange Commission over the past week, we're spreading this week's review over two posts. This is the second of the two posts.

SEC Charges Five with Insider Trading on Confidential Merger Negotiations Between Philadelphia Company and Japanese Firm
March 14, 2012 (Litigation Release No. 22288)
The SEC charged Timothy J. McGee, Michael W. Zirinsky, Robert Zirinsky, and Hong Kong residents Paulo Lam and Marianna sze wan Ho with...

SEC Press Release: Mortgage Backed Securities

(Apr 2011)

SEC Announces Securities Laws Violations by Wachovia Involving Mortgage-Backed Securities

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a press release today announcing that

"Wells Fargo Securities LLC [had] agreed to settle charges that Wachovia Capital Markets LLC engaged in misconduct in the sale of two collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) tied to the performance of residential mortgage-backed securities as the U.S. housing market was beginning to show signs of distress...

SEC Press Release: Municipal Bond Fund

(Jan 2011)

SEC Charges Former Portfolio Managers With Defrauding Utah Municipal Bond Fund

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a press release today announcing that it had

"charged two former portfolio managers with defrauding a mutual fund that invests primarily in municipal bonds issued by the State of Utah and its county and local authorities."

Young and Albright - co-portfolio managers of the Tax Free Fund for Utah at the time - charged municipal bond issuers over...

FINRA Press Release: Excessive Mark-Ups

(Dec 2010)

FINRA Expels APS Financial, Bars Former President and Former Broker for Targeting an Elderly Investor with Fraudulently Excessive Mark-ups

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a press release today announcing that

"it has expelled APS Financial Corporation, located in Austin, Texas, barred the firm's former President, George Conwill, and barred Peter Aman, a former broker at the firm, in a scheme which overcharged an elderly investor by $1.2 million."

The...

SLCG Research: Leveraged Municipal Bond Arbitrage

(Oct 2010)

SLCG released today 'Leveraged Municipal Bond Arbitrage: What Went Wrong?'. Leveraged municipal bond arbitrage is a strategy employed by fixed income hedge funds. This strategy buys long term municipal bonds and sells or shorts long term Treasury bonds while hedging with interest rate swaps. The strategy would seek to profit from the difference in the rates it receives from the municipal bonds and the rates it pays on the Treasury bonds and interest rate swaps.

Brokers marketed hedge...

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