Posts Tagged ‘Broker Dealer’

Montana Files Against Securities America for Medical Capital Blow Up

A Montana regulator has filed a stop and desist order against broker-dealer Securities America related to its sales of private placements. The office of the state auditor for the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance in Montana alleged in an Aug. 5 order that Securities America and some of its executives, including Chief Executive James Nagengast, “withheld material information regarding the heightened risks” of promissory notes it sold that were issued by Medical Capital Holdings Inc.

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Pennsylvania Files Complaint Against TD Ameritrade For Reserve Yield Plus Fund

Pennsylvania regulators filed a civil complaint against broker-dealer TD Ameritrade, alleging it committed fraud in the sale of Reserve Yield Plus Fund. The Pennsylvania Securities Commission’s enforcement division alleges that TD Ameritrade and Amerivest Investment Management LLC repeatedly told investors, in calls that were recorded, that the fund was a money-market fund.

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Wedbush Morgan broker Bambi Holzer’s Sale of Private Placements Including Provident Royalties Comes Under Fire

A broker whose employment record is littered with customer complaints over variable annuities is now the focus of investor lawsuits over highly illiquid and risky private-placement investments. The broker, Bambi Holzer, has 42 settled customer disputes, according to information posted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

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SEC Moves to Halt Florida Ponzi Scheme

Two Florida residents and their company were charged in Ohio with raising nearly $15 million in a Ponzi scheme.Lakeland, Fla., residents Edward A. Allen and David L. Olson, and their company, A&O Investments LLC, were accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of raising about $14.8 million from at least 100 investors between September 2005 and December 2008.

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Former SEC Investigator (and former Ethics Follies speaker!) May Have Known of R. Allen Stanford’s Ponzi Scheme

Is Spencer Barasch the man who single-handedly let alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford (pictured left) off the hook three times, costing investors more than $7 billion? Yikes!Mr. Barasch gave a humous talk at Ethics Follies 2008 about business ethics right here in the River City.

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SEC moves toward tracking high-frequency firms’ trades

The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a cost-benefit analysis of tracking transactions of high-frequency trading firms. The agency is expected to go forward with the effort, sources said. The thought is to give each firm a unique identifier that would allow the SEC to monitor traders not registered as a broker-dealer or a market maker.

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Provident Asset Management Expelled for Offering Fraudulent Private Placement Deal

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has expelled Provident Asset Management, LLC, a Dallas based broker-dealer. The expulsion stems from a series of fraudulent private placement offerings marketed through an affiliate, Provident Royalties, LLC. Some have called the offering a Ponzi scheme, a massive one at that, involving thousands of investors.

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Fiduciary Duty Reform Proposal May Backtrack on Previous Rhetoric

There is speculation this week that Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), will introduce new financial reform legislation that fails to make single fiduciary duty for Registered Independent Advisors (RIAs) and Broker-Dealers. This represents an expected 180?on the subject of fiduciary duty reform in light of intense lobbying efforts by the financial industry.

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Madoff Executive is Charged in Ponzi Scheme

The long-time director of operations for convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff’s defunct firm was arrested and charged criminally Thursday with allegedly directing that fake accounting entries be made in the firm’s books to hide Mr. Madoff’s fraud. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan charged Daniel Bonventre, former operations director at Bernard L.

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Knight Boosts Options Staff With Six Traders From Newedge

(Bloomberg) — Knight Capital Group Inc., which executes the most U.S. equity orders by volume, hired six options traders from Newedge Group and Pali Capital to expand its equity derivatives business.The team will be led by Adam Templeton and Ryan Sylvester from Newedge, where they were co-heads of the strategic options group, according to Reginald Browne, Knight’s co-head of listed derivatives.

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