The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has launched a three-month consultation on establishing a consumer redress scheme, which could deliver more than £100 million compensation to investors who were mis-sold the CF Arch cru Investment and Diversified funds. The proposed redress scheme complements the £54 million payment scheme announced last year, involving Capita Financial Managers Limited [...]
UK’s Financial Services Authority has sentenced a man from Richmond, North Yorkshire, to imprisonment for four and a half years after regulators convicted him of laundering boiler room funds. The decision has been served to Michael McInerney following a joint investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and City of London Police (CoLP). McInerney has [...]
Following a consultation period, HMRC has published its revised guidance on Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) regulations, which require a senior individual within UK taxpaying corporates to take personal responsibility for the company’s tax systems and processes. And according to KPMG in the UK, there are significant changes in HMRC’s position in several areas. The “light [...]
A Wisconsin federal court has issued a summary judgment imposing fines against the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wealth Management LLC for breaching his fiduciary duty in the company. The court’s decision comes in favor of the US Securities and Exchange Commission which filed a complaint in May 2009 against James Putman. Wealth Management [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Exillon Energy plc (Exillon) £292,950 for failing to identify around £930,000 of payments to its former Chairman and beneficiary of the major shareholder as related party transactions, and failing to disclose them to the FSA in a timely manner. The FSA found that this breach of the Listing [...]
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former executive at Morgan Stanley with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations as well as securities laws for investment advisers by secretly acquiring millions of dollars worth of real estate investments for himself and an influential Chinese official who in turn steered business to Morgan Stanley’s [...]
Due to high risks posed by traded life policy investments (TLPIs), these should not be promoted to the vast majority of retail investors in the UK, the Financial Services Authority said. The guidance is an interim measure – the FSA will shortly be consulting on new rules imposing significant restrictions on the promotion of non-mainstream [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is contacting 76,732 people to let them know they are targets for fraudsters trying to con them out of their money. Their names appeared on a number of lists recovered from companies that the FSA believes were fraudulently selling investments in land or worthless, sometimes non-existent, shares. Combined into one [...]
Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR) and its owner and president Sean Egan made material misrepresentations and omissions in its July 2008 application to register as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) for issuers of asset-backed securities (ABS) and government securities. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged EJR and Egan with material misrepresentations [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued H&R Block subsidiary Option One Mortgage Corporation for hiding the ailing condition of its offerings of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Option One, which is now known as Sand Canyon Corporation, agreed to pay $28.2 million to settle the SEC’s charges. The SEC alleges that Option One promised [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former CEO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and his close personal friend with scheming to defraud an investment firm into paying $20 million in fees to the friend’s placement agent firms. The SEC alleges that former CalPERS CEO Federico R. Buenrostro and his friend [...]
A China-based oil field services company and two senior officers are facing charges for their role in misleading investors about the value of its assets and its use of $120 million in IPO proceeds. The SEC additionally charged the company’s chairman of the board for his involvement in a separate $40 million theft from the [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Boston-based father-son duo of hedge fund managers and their firms with securities fraud for misleading investors about their investment strategy and past performance. The SEC’s investigation found that Gabriel and Marco Bitran raised millions of dollars for their hedge funds through GMB Capital Management LLC and GMB [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged twin brothers from the U.K. with defrauding approximately 75,000 investors through an Internet-based pump-and-dump scheme in which they touted a fake “stock picking robot” that purportedly identified penny stocks set to double in price. Instead, the brothers were merely touting stocks they were being paid separately to promote. [...]
British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA) engaged in anti-competitive practices in relation to the pricing of passenger fuel surcharges. In November 2011, the OFT issued a Statement of Objections giving notice of a proposed infringement decision under the Competition Act 1998 to BA and VAA. This was the decision of the Office of [...]
An emergency court order has frozen the assets of a Los Angeles man orchestrating a securities fraud by falsely presenting himself to investors as a specialist in municipal bond investments. The US SEC alleges that Michael Anthony Gonzalez raised approximately $1 million since February 2010 by telling investors he would invest their money in specific [...]
The Financial Reporting Council has begun consultation on proposed revisions to the UK Corporate Governance Code and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) to give effect to its Effective Company Stewardship proposals. The FRC is also consulting on updates to the Stewardship Code. The UK Corporate Governance Code, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this [...]
A Chicago-based securities dealer affiliated with online brokerage firm optionsXpress “violated” the registration provisions of the securities laws when it continued trading operations after delisting from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and deregistering with the SEC, apparently to avoid an audit. On April 18, the SEC charged optionsXpress as well as four officials at [...]
More than £130,000 has been paid to customers of MF Global UK Limited through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), with more payments expected as claimants return their applications forms enabling the FSCS to assess their claims. Last month, the FSCS finalized the pay-out process for MF Global account holders. The FSCS has now sent [...]
The OFT has referred the completed acquisition by McGill’s Bus Services Limited (McGill’s) of the Arriva Scotland West local bus business to the Competition Commission. The Competition Commission has carried out a market investigation into the local bus industry. The final report was published on 20 December 2011. McGill’s and Arriva Scotland West operate competing [...]
