SEC

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a pair of lawyers for tipping inside information in exchange for kickbacks as well as six Wall Street traders and a proprietary trading firm involved in a $20 million insider trading scheme.    » read more »

Hedge Fund Managers, Professional Traders and Senior Corporate Executive Among Newly Charged in $33 Million Scheme

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced additional charges in its insider trading enforcement action against billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and Galleon Management LP by charging 13 additional individuals and entities, including three hedge fund managers, three professional traders at New York-based Schottenfeld Group, and a senior executive at Atheros Communications, a California-based developer of networking technologies.    » read more »

Senator says failure to address market structure issues could mean systemic risk

November 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a speech on the Senate floor today, Senator Ted Kaufman continued his push for more regulatory oversight of the U.S. equity markets by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As Kaufman noted, “just over one year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers ... Wall Street is essentially unchanged.” Not only are the same practices that led to the financial debacle 14 months ago still present, but the market is increasingly dominated by “new practices which are leading to new problems and new systemic risks.”

The danger, Kaufman warns, is that with no immediate crisis at hand, it is all too easy to slip back into complacency.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Oct. 30, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former chief financial officer of a San Francisco private investment firm and six of his relatives and friends with insider trading, alleging that their scheme collectively reaped more than $8 million in illicit profits from unlawful trades in the securities of Tempur-pedic International, Inc. and Acxiom Corporation.    » read more »

High-Ranking Corporate Executives Also Charged in Scheme That Generated More Than $25 Million in Illicit Gains

Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and his New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management LP with engaging in a massive insider trading scheme that generated more than $25 million in illicit gains. The SEC also charged six others involved in the scheme, including senior executives at major companies IBM, Intel and McKinsey & Company.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Oct. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has approved new exchange rules for breaking stock trades that deviate so substantially from current market prices that they are considered “clearly erroneous.” The rules would for the first time provide a consistent standard across stock exchanges and reduce uncertainty about what happens to a trade depending on where it is executed.

“Adopting consistent standards across exchanges for breaking trades will strengthen the resiliency of our markets by reducing the potential for market confusion, especially during periods of high market volatility,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “These changes will promote the orderly and efficient operation of our markets.”    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today unanimously proposed a rule amendment that would prohibit the practice of flashing marketable orders.

A flash order enables a person who has not publicly displayed a quote to see orders less than a second before the public is given an opportunity to trade with those orders. Investors who have access only to information displayed as public quotes may be harmed if market participants are able to flash orders and avoid the need to make the order publicly available.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to take several rulemaking actions to bolster oversight of credit ratings agencies by enhancing disclosure and improving the quality of credit ratings.

Credit rating agencies are organizations that rate the creditworthiness of a company or a financial product, such as a debt security or money market instrument. In particular, the Commission voted to adopt or propose measures intended to improve the quality of credit ratings by requiring greater disclosure, fostering competition, helping to address conflicts of interest, shedding light on rating shopping, and promoting accountability.    » read more »

In response to Kaufman’s letter, SEC Chairman says agency will undertake broader review

September 14, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the bankruptcy that sent shock waves down Wall Street and throughout the country, Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) will deliver a speech highlighting the failure to enact comprehensive financial regulatory reform in the 365 days since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

He will also detail the critical need for the nation's financial regulatory agencies to adopt a forward-looking approach to regulation - one that recognizes manipulation and wrongdoing before it metastasizes and leads to systemic failures or seriously undermines market credibility, fairness and investor confidence.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the distribution of more than $35 million in Fair Funds to more than 98,000 investors in Cardinal Health, Inc. who were harmed by a fraudulent revenue and earnings management scheme.

The SEC's enforcement action against Cardinal Health in July 2007 alleged that the company presented a false picture of its operating results to the financial community and the investing public — one that matched its publicly disseminated earnings guidance and analysts' expectations rather than its true economic performance. Cardinal Health settled the SEC's charges and paid $35 million in penalties and disgorgement that were placed into the Fair Fund being distributed.    » read more »

August 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—James M. Davis, 60, the former chief financial officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group (SFG), pleaded guilty today to fraud and obstruction charges related to a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors, Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, and Tim Johnson, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, announced.

Davis was charged in a criminal information, filed on June 18, 2009, with conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to obstruct a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation. The criminal information also seeks forfeiture of up to $1 billion in fraud proceeds.    » read more »

Enhance investor confidence

Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted on three measures that are intended to better inform and empower investors to improve corporate governance and help restore investor confidence.

The Commission proposed requiring public companies receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to provide a shareholder vote on executive pay in their proxy solicitations The Commission also voted to propose better disclosure of executive compensation at public companies in their proxy statements, and approved a New York Stock Exchange rule change to prohibit brokers from voting proxies in corporate elections without instructions from their customers.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., June 22, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New York-based broker-dealer and four individuals with securities fraud, alleging that they collectively raised billions of dollars from investors for Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., June 19, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two accountants who produced bogus financial statements and an Antiguan regulator who took bribes to look the other way as Robert Allen Stanford conducted an alleged $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

The SEC previously charged Stanford and his companies — Antiguan-based Stanford International Bank (SIB), Houston-based broker-dealer and investment adviser Stanford Group Company (SGC), and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management — as well as SIB chief financial officer James Davis and Stanford Financial Group chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt with securities fraud in an enforcement action filed in federal court in Dallas on February 17.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., June 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two Oklahoma City residents with securities fraud and other violations for a scheme in which they misappropriated to themselves millions of dollars from Quest Resource Corporation, Quest Energy Partners, L.P. and their affiliates while they were executives at the company.    » read more »