Three New York investors have filed a class action complaint – dated May 23rd – against Facebook and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, in addition to lead underwriter Morgan Stanley and an array of secondary underwriters (including JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch) claiming that negative information about…
Articles Posted in Industry Topics
Hedging Their Bets: Understanding Corporate Loopholes in the Dodd-Frank Act
Since the financial crisis of 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers and beyond, the need for regulators to create new means of quelling excessive risk has been met with questions remain as to how effective these rules have been. Many of the new post-crisis rules have not yet gone into effect,…
FINRA Fines Brookstone Securities $1 Million Dollars and Permanently Bars Two Individuals for Fraudulent Sales of CMOs
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), issued a news release on June 4, 2012 announcing that a FINRA hearing panel fined Brookstone Securities $1 million for the fraudulent sales of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations to elderly investors. In addition, FINRA ordered restitution from the firm and the individuals involved and permanently…
FINRA Fines Citigroup Global Markets $3.5 Million for Providing Inaccurate Performance Data Related to Subprime Securitizations
Investors rely upon their brokers for accurate statements on the market: without knowledge and researched facts, there is no trust that our investments have been wisely managed. In understanding this need, regulatory bodies intervene in situations when brokerage firms have failed to live up to their end of the informational…
Fixed Leaks: Insider Trading and How It Affects Your Investment Strategies
A headline of the New York Times’ Sunday Business section published May 19th, Gretchen Morgenson asks “Is Insider Trading Part of the Fabric?“, raising a potentially distressing question for regulators and market analysts alike. Morgenson profiles the woes of one Ted Parmigiani, a Lehman Brothers investment analyst whose career was…
In Light of MF Global: Knowing the Risks of European Investment
It has been difficult to not hear about the recent events surrounding MF Global Holdings Ltd and former Senator and New Jersey Governor, John Corzine. However, many investors do not really understand what happened or why. A recent article in Forbes Online titled “MF Global: Were the Risks Clear?” helps…
Watching the Watchers: Charting the SEC’s Increased Pursuit of Negligent Execs
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has in recent weeks seemingly broadened its pursuit of wrongdoers by filing cases against defendants on the charge of negligence alone. Negligence can be defined as a situation in which one should have known that information given to investors was inadequate. In recent years,…
All in the Timing: What Judge Rakoff’s Decision Against Madoff’s Trustee Teaches Us About Managing Our Securities
In a follow up to our recent critique of dividing defrauded consumers into “net winners” and “net losers” comes a decision from U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who has dismissed Bernie Madoff trustee Irving Picard’s claims filed to regain nearly $1 billion from Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the owners…
FINRA Fines Three New York Based Broker-Dealers For Mischaracterizing Customer Fees
New York securities law saw quite the news day, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a news release on September 7, 2011 announcing fines against five Broker-Dealers, three of them based in New York, for mischaracterizing fees charged to customers. The three New York based firms were John…
Malecki Law Announces Investigation of IRA Services Trust Company and Fiserv, Inc. Arising Out of Investments with the Van Zandt Agency
Malecki Law, a New York securities law firm based in Manhattan, is currently investigating claims against IRA Services Trust Company and Fiserv, Inc. arising out of investments solicited and promissory notes issued through the Van Zandt Agency in relation to real estate investments in the Bronx, New York and elsewhere.…