Josh Funk, a business writer for the AP wrote that  TD Ameritrade has agreed to a $10 million settlement for failing to properly supervise representatives who misled investors about the safety of a money-market mutual fund that "broke the buck" in 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Funk writes that TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. customers who still hold […]

In an InvestmentNews.com article, Darla Mercado writes that two registered representatives with Planmember Securities Corp. could lose their securities licenses in Texas and face fines of $100,000 each for the improper sale of life settlement notes. The brokers, Jimmy Wayne Freeman Jr. and Kris Bradford Rhoden, were due to appear at the State Office of Administrative […]

It was reported that on July 22, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report from its Life Settlements Task Force which recommended that the SEC urge Congress to amend the federal securities laws to include life settlements as securities. The SEC report also recommended that the SEC monitor brokers and providers to assure […]

Darla Mercado of InvestmentNews.com, recently wrote that Finra's variable annuity (VA) suitability rule should be old news to broker-dealers, but firms that want to avoid an arbitration land mine ought to review their procedures. Mercado writes this warning came directly from Andrew A. Favret, associate vice president and regional chief counsel at the Financial Industry Regulatory […]

In an article from InvestmentNews.com, Mark Schoeff Jr., writes that broker-dealers have been engaging in sales practices for structured securities products that hurt retail investors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report released in July. The article goes on to say that in an examinations of 11 broker-dealers, the SEC found that the firms […]

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 […]

Securities attorney, Lars Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is currently investigating the Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) for possible violations of federal securities laws after the company’s withdrawal of its sales forecasts for its prostate cancer therapy Provenge. Dendreon projected that it would earn between $350 - $400 million on sales of Provenge. The Dendreon Corporation is […]

In an August 4, 2011, article by Bruce Kelly for InvestmentNews.com he writes that after avoiding the pitfalls of disastrous Regulation D deals during the past decade, Commonwealth Financial Network and LPL Financial, LLC, are contending with potential fallout from a real estate private placement that faces pressure from its creditors. Kelley writes that financial advisers […]

Back in April of 2007, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a hedge fund, Lydia Capital LLC (Lydia), in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts alleging fraud against investors in life insurance policies purchased by Lydia. SEC v. Lydia Capital LLC, No. 1:07-CV-10712, (D. Mass. Apr. 12, 2007). granting in part a motion by the SEC, […]