Blog
FINRA takes new enforcement action against Charles Acheson Laverty
May 8, 2018
Laverty was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that that during consecutive associations with several member firms, he borrowed $1,350,000 from an elderly married couple in violation of each firm’s policies. The complaint alleges that three of the firms prohibited their representatives from borrowing money from their customers. Although a firm permitted loans […]
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FINRA Sanctions Fifth Third Securities, Inc., $6 Million
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today it has fined Fifth Third Securities, Inc., $4 million and required the firm to pay approximately $2 million in restitution to customers for failing to appropriately consider and accurately describe the costs and benefits of variable annuity (VA) exchanges, and for recommending exchanges without a reasonable basis […]
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Clifton Stanley Ponzi scheme charges brought by SEC
April 11, 2018
On April 6, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two Texas companies and their principals in a $2.4 million Ponzi scheme and in a related, $1.4 million offering fraud targeting retirees. The SEC’s complaint alleges that, from 2010 to 2017, Clifton E. Stanley ran a Ponzi scheme through his retirement planning and real estate […]
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SEC freezes Longfin (LFIN)
April 9, 2018
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an emergency freeze of $27 million in trading profits involving the CEO of cryptocurrency company Longfin and three other people, the agency said in a statement Friday. Longfin’s stock was halted on the Nasdaq as of 10:01 a.m. ET on the SEC alert after jumping more than 47 […]
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Broker Charged With Repeatedly Putting Customer Assets At Risk
March 21, 2018
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Electronic Transaction Clearing (ETC), a registered broker-dealer headquartered in Los Angeles, has agreed to settle charges that it illegally placed more than $25 million of customers’ securities at risk in order to fund its own operations. Among other things, the SEC found that ETC violated the Customer Protection […]
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