The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Thomas Powell and Stefan Toth, and their entities, Resolute Capital Partners LTD LLC and Homebound Resources LLC, with making material misrepresentations and omissions in connection with more than a dozen unregistered oil and gas securities offerings. Powell and Toth were also charged with […]
Brokers
Commentary, news and links of interest to financial advisers.
Advisor Charged With Targeting Elderly Clients In $8M Fraud
An investment advisor based in New York and Santa Fe, N.M., has been charged with swindling dozens of clients out of more than $8 million by recommending investments in a fund he controlled and then transferring the assets out to pay for personal expenses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the […]
Netflix Insider Trading Ring
You cannot trade on material, non-public information, and that includes non-public information concerning the growth in your employer’s subscriber base or information contained in unpublished earnings releases. And if you do, you will undoubtedly be caught, and subjected to some very harsh penalties. Fines, a return of three times the […]
Does Trading on Information Learned About A Competitor Constitute Insider Trading?
The SEC has been known to attempt to regulate by litigation, a tactic that causes significant problems for their targets, and undermines the integrity of the SEC’s mission. Insider Trading of a Competitor’s Stock? Last week the SEC charged a former employee of Medivation Inc. with insider trading in advance […]
Merrill Lynch Penalized $11.6 Million For Improper UIT Rollovers
Merrill Lynch Penalized $11.6 Million For Improper UIT Rollovers: The transactions forced clients to pay millions of dollars in needless fees, according to FINRA. A UIT is an investment company that offers investors shares, or “units,” in a fixed portfolio of securities in a one-time public offering that terminates […]
Robinhood Fined $70 Million
FINRA fines Robinhood and orders it to pay its customers 12.6 million dollars
SEC Chair Gensler Seeks to Amend 10b5-1
The new SEC chair believes that 10b5-1 plans “have led to real cracks in our insider trading regime” and has asked the SEC Staff to make recommendations for the Commission’s consideration on how they might “freshen up” Rule 10b5-1. In his comments to the CFO Network Summit, he made a […]
Beware Phishing Email Using “gateway-finra.org” Domain Name
FINRA has issued a warning to member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails purporting to be from FINRA and using the domain name “@gateway-finra.org.” The email asks the recipient to click a link to “view request” and provide information to “complete” that request, noting that “late […]
New York Guidance on State Securities Filing Rules
New York has released additional guidance on recent rule amendments prepared by the Investor Protection Bureau (IPB) and adopted in 2020. Through these new rules, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has increased transparency for the public into the investment adviser representatives and securities issuers operating in New York state. […]
Can a Non-Citizen Be An Accredited Investor?
There is no residency or citizenship requirement in the definition of an accredited investor. Many entities and individuals are accredited investors. Rule 501 of Regulation D defines the term. For individuals, accredited investors include: Any director, executive officer, or general partner of the issuer of the securities being offered or sold, or any director, executive officer, […]