Despite theater’s common expression that “the show must go on”, a large-scale musical planned to hit Broadway this month has been postponed following accusations of fraud and breach of contract levied against its stockbroker. For further definitions of fraud and “BoC”, visit the Investors page of our firm’s website. …
An intriguing new instance of whistleblowing has emerged from Clifford Jagodzinski, an ex-employee of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC who claims that at least one highly successful broker for the firm was churning preferred securities in 2011. Churning in this case would violate not only state law, but also rules…
Headline news charting the dramatic peaks and valleys of select Credit Suisse and Barclays properties prompted the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) to issue a July warning to investors detailing the potential risks inherent to exchange-traded notes (or ETNs). The investor alert, entitled “Exchange Traded Notes – Avoid Unpleasant…
After years of concerns raised but never fully investigated by futures industry regulation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and National Futures Association (NFA) took enforcement action July 9th against brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group, also known as PFGBest. Peregrine founder Russell Wasendorf subsequently confessed to committing acts of embezzlement…
Professor of economics Peter J. Henning wrote July 30th for the New York Times of the ever-changing definition of what classifies as “insider trading” in today’s market. Henning’s approach is at once streamlined and nuanced, walking us through a user-friendly tutorial of how and why fiduciary duties are upheld. Because…
Recent front page woes of JPMorgan Chase and MFGlobal – as well as Barclays manipulation of Libor interest rates – have spurred debate as to whether our regulatory bodies are failing to meet watchdog standards of prosecuting financial crimes on Wall Street, and to what degree offending banks and brokers…
Jenice Malecki will be speaking at the Practising Law Institute (PLI) Seminar tomorrow on Securities Arbitration 2012. If you cannot make it, there will be a webcast and course materials available. Last year’s fervor over the fairness of arbitration has not so much subsided as it has been refined. In…
Last week’s July 3rd edition of the New York Times reports that past and present brokers from mutual fund giant JPMorgan Chase were encouraged to favor JPMorgan products in their financial advisement to customers, even when competitor products were better performing or better suited to a consumer’s budget. Moreover, JPMorgan…
In the wake of $2 billion of trading losses at the UK unit of JPMorgan Chase, new focus from US regulators has been placed upon London as a haven for excessive trading risks and broker negligence. And while JPMorgan Chase is said to have begun its own analysis into how…
The New York Times‘s Dealbook section last week reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fined financial services giant Barclays $200 million, effective June 27th, as a result of the company’s attempts to manipulate a key interest rate – the London Interbank Offered Rate, or “Libor”. To learn more…