http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:54:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Congress may be onto something, but can they make it stick? Reflecting legislators’ concern over rampant cases of investment fraud perpetrated against seniors, the June 30 "Senior Investment Protections Enhancement Act of 2008," Bill S. 3219, would provide for assessment of a $50,000 monetary penalty in cases of securities ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/07/08/senior-investment-protections-enhancement-act-penalties-for-securities-violations/ It's not easy being an ordinary investor in these cynical times. Compliance Week's May 13, 2008 article by Tammy Whitehouse quotes former SEC commissioner--now Washington lawyer--Roel Campos' view of the purported "culpability" of investors who are stuck with illiquid auction rate securities which were sold to them as "cash equivalents": "The ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/05/16/investor-protection-the-ars-blame-game/ "accurate reporting of risk actually may not have been a high enough priority in the mortgage-backed securities business, not when there was so much to be made off unsuspecting investors induced to buy into this hyped market." Securities Fraud Hotline Post, March 15, 2008. Questionable business practices that have wreaked havoc in ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/04/30/investor-protection-state-securities-regulators-to-the-rescue/ As advocates for the rights of investors, we have long been proponents goals-based regulation in previous posts here and elsewhere. In a stunning admission today that deregulation has failed, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) reported on important first steps that must be taken to restore economic ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/03/13/securities-market-reform-and-investor-protection-return-of-the-rules-based-paradigm/ The $13 million penalty assessed by the SEC in 2006 in a settlement against the 15 largest financial firms over the bidding process for auction-rate securities can now be seen as a portentous footnote to the current breakdown of the auction-rate business. Afterwards it was business as usual until ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/03/12/auction-rate-securities-market-implosion-puts-investors-in-limbo/ "What is the reason we have the securities industry. . . trying to get everything into arbitration? I think it is simple. The reason is, they feel they have a leg up when they go to arbitration and the reason for that mainly is because they have a ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/02/28/sica-study-the-industry-arbitrator-bias/ In one of the Securities Arbitration Commentator’s current publications, reference is made to the letter of Richard Ketchum, Chief of the SEC’s Division of Market Regulation at the time, dated September 10, 1987 and the SICA Public Members’ response dated October 9, 1987. There's a fascinating backstory to these documents, ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/02/15/sro-securities-arbitration-the-backstory-to-current-efforts-at-reform/ “Anyone with a sense of history can look at the declining, dismal results that [NASD and NYSE] arbitration has yielded to the investor over the past 20 years to see that the system is not a level playing field. NASD stats show the investor “win rate” has steadily declined. ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/02/07/fairness-for-investors%e2%80%93now/ For literally decades we’ve made recommendations for securities arbitration reform and lobbied strenuously for: the end to mandatory securities arbitration, the formation of an alternative to self-regulatory organization (SRO) arbitration that’s fair for public investors and outside of the brokerage industry, and the end to the appointment of so-called “industry arbitrators” to hear ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/02/06/securities-arbitration-study-shows-investors-don%e2%80%99t-believe-it%e2%80%99s-fair/ Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s administrative fraud claim against Merrill Lynch, for unauthorized trading, failure to disclose risk and unsuitable investments in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) involving a city of Springfield account, is arguably the tip of the iceberg in terms of municipal and other investor losses (involving many ... http://www.securitiesfraudhotline.com/2008/02/02/subprime-fallout-charges-of-securities-fraud/