The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a Complaint yesterday against former RBC Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch broker Thomas J. Buck, who was employed in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. According to the allegations, Buck made false representations and omissions to certain clients regarding fees and commissions charged in their accounts and by making unauthorized trades [...]
In 2015, Scott Valente was sentenced for securities fraud, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice to 20 years in prison and fines over $5 million. However, in April of 2017, that conviction was overturned in the US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. A new trial was held in July, and Mr. Valente was again sentenced [...]
Whether you are just beginning to build an investment portfolio, or have been investing for years, chances are you will need the guidance of a finance professional to ensure that your investments are sound and protected. Depending on your needs, risk tolerance and interests, you may find yourself working with a registered investment advisor (RIA) [...]
Wells Fargo & Co. is facing more legal trouble after the bank's recent cross-selling scandal was revealed last month. A participant in Wells Fargo's 401(k) plan brought suit against the bank for a "material drop" in its stock price following the news of the scandal, described as a "criminal epidemic" that caused hundred of millions [...]
Former Wells Fargo broker John Christopher Pierce agreed to be barred from working with any firm registered with FINRA after he allegedly stole from his clients' bank accounts. At the time of the alleged misconduct, Pierce was both a registered broker-dealer with Wells Fargo as well as a personal banker at a Wells Fargo Bank [...]
The SEC has barred from the securities industry Aubrey Lee Price, an imprisoned former Georgia investment adviser who pleaded guilty in 2014 to a massive fraud that helped bring down his troubled bank and cheated his clients out of millions of dollars. The penalty is inconsequential as Price is expected to spend three decades in [...]
FSC Securities will pay a $1.28 million arbitration award to investors who were defrauded by Aubrey Lee Price, who had feigned his death in 2012 to avoid being investigated for his $40 million Ponzi scheme. FSC, a broker-dealer in the AIG Advisor Group, was alleged by 8 investors to have failed to supervise a number [...]
Six banks--Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, RBS, Bank of America, and UBS--will pay, as a group, $1.4 billion to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and roughly $1.75 billion (£1.1 billion) to the U.K's Financial Conduct Authority. UBS will additionally make a payment to Switzerland. The British regulator has never before levied such large fines and [...]
Frank Spinosa, a former vice president of TD Bank from Fort Lauderdale, is facing a potential 20 year imprisonment sentence if convicted on charges made by the FBI in relation to an extensive Ponzi scheme in South Florida. Spinosa is believed to have participated in Scott Rothstein's $1.2 billion investment fraud. Spinosa was fired from [...]
Breifne O'Brien, an Irish businessman and socialite, was sentenced this week by a court in Ireland to seven years imprisonment for operating a $10.8 million Ponzi scheme. The scheme consisted of O'Brien selling fake property investments before Ireland's real estate collapse in 2008. O'Brien pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud and theft with regard [...]
Three hedge fund managers have been sentenced in a Ponzi scheme case that conned investors out of $40 million. Jeffrey Toft of Sioux Falls, South Dakota received 66 months in prison. Chad Sloat of Kansas City, Missouri received 70 months. And Michael Murphy of Deep Haven, Minnesota received 48 months. All three of their sentences [...]
Last Thursday, Bank of America and two of its subsidiaries agreed to settle its case with the U.S. Department of Justice for $16.65 billion. The settlement will put to end claims that the bank engaged in faulty lending during the housing boom years, making it the biggest settlement stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. The [...]
Bank of America is in talks to settle an investigation into its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis and could pay between $16 and $17 billion, making it the biggest Justice Department settlement by a long shot arising from the economic collapse. However, the deal has not been finalized, [...]
UBS AG is being formally investigated for money laundering by French officials, who ordered the bank to post €1.1 billion ($1.49 billion) bail amidst a growing investigation into claims that it assisted high-profile clients evade French taxes. Just a month ago, UBS' French subsidiary was fined a record-setting €10 million for being slow to correct [...]
Bank of America Corp. failed to win dismissal of two government lawsuits in which it is alleged to have misled investors about the quality of loans tied to $850 million in residential mortgage-back securities. U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina ruled that the SEC properly laid out claims that Bank [...]
US banking giant JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay USD 400 million in a settlement for litigation filed by Syncora Guarantee Inc. over mortgage-backed securities . Syncora said it would drop the rest of its cases against the banking giant as a result of the $400 million settlement The securities sold to Syncora came from [...]
On Feb. 19, RBS officials announced that the company had reached a $275 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve allegations of misleading investors in mortgage-backed securities. The settlement is the third-largest settlement in the U.S. class action against banks packaged and sold mortgage securities . This case was originally filed in 2008 by [...]
On February 26, 2014, the Supreme Court decided Chadbourne & Parke LLP v. Troice, 571 U.S. ___ (2014), ruling by a 7-2 vote that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (“SLUSA”) does not bar state-law securities class actions in which the plaintiffs allege that they purchased uncovered securities that the defendants misrepresented were [...]
In the aftermath of the Barclays scandal, United States and British Lawmakers are cracking down on regulators that should have been more proactive and dedicated in preventing the years of illegal banking behaviors. The Dealbook.com article said that the Barclays $450 million settlement is but the first action from this broad and far-reaching investigation. The article lists some [...]
The Volcker Rule restricts the ability of federally insured banks to trade for their own benefit, according to this article in the New York Times. The article states that with the large losses by banks in the trading of financial securities, especially mortgage-backed assets, there has been a push for more federal regulations. The Volcker Rule is [...]
