WASHINGTON —On FINRA's website, it was announced that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined Northern Trust Securities $600,000 for deficiencies in supervising sales of collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and failure to have adequate systems in place to monitor certain high-volume securities trades. The article said that FINRA found from October 2006 through October 2009, Northern […]

WASHINGTON — It was announced on FINRA's website that The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined Southwest Securities, Inc., of Dallas, $650,000 for deficiencies in due diligence, risk assessment and written supervisory procedures that permitted one of its correspondent firms, Cutler Securities, to create risk for Southwest through improper short sales. FINRA also required Southwest […]

WASHINGTON — From the FINRA Newsroom, it was announced that The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed a complaint against David Lerner & Associates, Inc. (DLA), of Syosset, NY, charging the firm with soliciting investors to purchase shares in Apple REIT Ten, a non-traded $2 billion Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), without conducting a […]

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has ordered Wedbush Securities and one of its former brokers to pay $2.9 million in damages and fees to an elderly investor who allegedly fell victim to a faulty investment scheme. The founder Edward Wedbush, and broker Debbie Michelle Saleh were ordered to pay $2,865,885 in damages. The […]

WASHINGTON – On FINRA's website, August, 10, 2011, The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that it has fined Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. $500,000 for failing to supervise Tamara Moon, a former registered sales assistant at the firm's branch office in Palo Alto, California. Over an 8 year period, Moon misappropriated $749,978 from 22 customers, falsified […]

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, through its investment manager, Alliance Capital Management, LP, sold a proprietary hedge fund, called the Multi-Strategy Fixed Income Hedge Fund. The Multi-Strategy Fixed Income Fund was sold by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC as an alternative to traditional fixed income. Sanford Bernstein stressed that the Multi-strategy Fund would […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is filing claims on behalf of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney clients that were sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stocks in 2007 and 2008.  Despite internal limitations to recommend no more than 10% of an investor's portfolio in preferred stocks, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney investors were sold Fannie Mae and Freddie […]

WASHINGTON —It was announced July 20, 2011, on FINRA's website that The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has suspended William Bailey, a former NEXT Financial Group, Inc. broker of Mesa, Arizona, from the securities industry for two years for unsuitable and excessive trading of mutual funds and variable annuities. Bailey also engaged in discretionary trading without […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – On The Florida Office of Financial Regulation's website it was announced, July 21, 2011, that The Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) issued a final order on May 26, 2011, against investment adviser James Paul Birmingham (“Birmingham”) (CRD # 222511) and his Broward County companies Birmingham Investments and Birmingham Capital Advisors, LLC for […]