The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New Jersey man with operating a Ponzi-like scheme involving a series of investment vehicles formed for the purported purpose of purchasing and managing rental apartment buildings in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The SEC alleges that David M. Connolly induced investors to buy shares in real estate investment [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Hawaii resident and two firms he used to orchestrate a scheme in which he covertly founded small companies, installed management, and recruited overseas boiler rooms that pressured investors into buying their stock while he pocketed more than $2 million in consulting fees from proceeds of the fraudulent [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Scotland-based fund management group for fraudulently using one of its U.S. fund clients to rescue another client, a China-focused hedge fund struggling in the midst of the global financial crisis. Martin Currie agreed to pay a total of nearly $14 million to the SEC and the United [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley, and the investment adviser to the city’s public pension funds involved in a secret exchange of lavish gifts to peddle influence over the funds’ investment process. The SEC alleges that Kilpatrick and Beasley, who were trustees [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against a Hollywood movie producer along with his brother, cousin, and three others in his circle of friends and business partners for insider trading in the stock of a company for which he served on the board of directors. The SEC alleges that Mohammed Mark Amin, prior [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former paralegal at a Kalispell, Mont.-based semiconductor company and her father with insider trading on confidential information about the 2009 acquisition of the company. The SEC alleges that Angela Milliard wired money to her boyfriend’s brokerage account so she could illegally trade on nonpublic details she learned [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Florida man and 10 cohorts involved in two separate schemes to illegally sell stock, including one that sought to capitalize on circumstances in Haiti following the earthquake that destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure in January 2010. The SEC alleges that Kevin Sepe of Miami masterminded the [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico and two executives with making misleading statements to investors, concealing a liquidity crisis, and masking its control of the secondary market for 23 proprietary closed-end mutual funds. UBS Puerto Rico agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying $26.6 million that [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a settlement in a $32 million insider trading case filed by the agency last year against a corporate attorney and a Wall Street trader. The SEC alleged that the insider trading occurred in advance of at least 11 merger and acquisition announcements involving clients of the law firm [...]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former executive at Morgan Stanley with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) 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 [...]