Imagine you invest with a broker whose front doors, office plaques, coffee mugs, pencils, brochures, stationery, folders, office signage, and emails all proclaim that your investments are insured by SIPC – Wall Street’s so-called “Securities Investor Protection Corporation.” Your broker tells you the stock market is overvalued. But he has a very safe, moderate-yield investment opportunity that entails purchasing certificates of deposits. More on Forbes [...]
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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Thursday that former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Elisse Walter has been elected to FINRA’s board as public governor, along with Susan Wolburgh Jenah, president and CEO of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). Also elected at FINRA’s 2014 annual meeting in Washington, which was closed to the public, were a small-firm governor, Mark Cresap, president and owner of Cresap Inc., and a large-firm governor, Gregory J. Fleming, president of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. More on ThinkAdvisor [...] A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology dean and his son have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for running an alleged hedge fund scam that lost more than $140 million in investors’ money, according to federal prosecutors in Boston. Investigators said they discovered the scam while they unraveled Bernard Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme. Gabriel Bitran, 69, and his son Marco, 39, are accused of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with their GMB Capital Management and GMB Capital Partners hedge fund businesses. More in USA Today [...] Mary Jo White took the helm of the Securities and Exchange Commission facing high hopes that she could turn around the once-proud agency. More than a year into her tenure, she has disappointed a wide swath of would-be allies. Over the last several weeks, I’ve been talking to fellow regulators, administration officials, current and former S.E.C. staff members, financial reform advocates and people on Capitol Hill whose opinions of Ms. White’s performance range from dissatisfied to infuriated. More in the New York Times [...] Lawyers for Bernard Madoff’s two sons are asking a bankruptcy judge to reject the latest bid by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee handling the bankruptcy of Mr. Madoff’s firm, to sue the Madoff brothers over their alleged role in their father’s Ponzi scheme. Defense lawyers for Mark and Andrew Madoff in filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York blasted Mr. Picard’s latest attempt to hold the brothers accountable for their father’s misdeeds, noting the trustee “was dealt a resounding defeat” in a similar lawsuit he pursued in the U.K. “The Trustee’s apparent response to such a ringing rejection of his theories is simply to seek another bite at the apple here” in the U.S., lawyers for the Madoff brothers said Tuesday. “The bottom line is that it is simply too late for the Trustee to yet again reinvent his complaint.” More in the Wall Street Journal [...] Forget House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Madmen, and all the other series you can’t wait to restart. There’s a new series out that beats them all. It went live yesterday on this channel. It’s free for the viewing, well, actually for the reading. It’s as shocking and scary as anything you’ll see in The Walking Dead. WASHINGTON – Members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Senators Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and U.S. Representatives Gregg Harper, R-Miss., Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., and Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., today called on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White to appeal a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals regarding the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford. The court found that thousands of investors who were cheated in this Ponzi scheme, including many Mississippians, are not eligible for financial compensation. More on Insurance News [...] MANHATTAN (CN) – Victims of Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme can collect on a $410 million settlement despite obstruction from Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee, the 2nd Circuit ruled. Irving Picard, as trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and Madoff’s bankruptcy estate, launched “adversary proceedings” to block the settlement of three lawsuits on behalf of investors in “feeder funds” that funneled cash to perpetuate the scheme. Picard claimed that the settlements on those three cases would “hinder” his ability to recoup fraudulent transfers. Such concerns failed Friday, however, to sway the 2nd Circuit on Friday. More in Courthouse News [...] MF Global Holdings Ltd. is urging a judge not to toss its $1 billion lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the alleged bad accounting advice that MF Global says led to its 2011 collapse. In a filing earlier this week with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, lawyers for the administrator in charge of MF Global fought PwC’s argument that MF doesn’t have the standing to sue PWC. A PwC spokeswoman declined to comment. PWC argued in a May court filing that only MF Global’s litigation trustee, who is in charge of pursuing certain lawsuits on behalf of creditors, has standing to file the suit. MF Global says its administrator also has the right. More in the Wall Street Journal [...] A federal appeals panel has handed the receiver in the Bernard Madoff case another setback. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on Friday rejected Irving Picard’s bid to throw out nearly $500 million in settlements with Madoff feeder funds. The three-judge panel unanimously upheld the lower-court ruling that preserved the settlements, which Picard insisted that he had the right under federal bankruptcy law to block. Picard complains that the deals, with J. Ezra Merkin and Fairfield Greenwich Group, will limit the amount he is able to collect for victims, and are barred until he finishes his own work. More on FinAlternatives [...] |
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