In a recent SEC complaint, there were allegations made against The Nutmeg Group, LLC, and others, that Nutmeg has invested fund assets almost entirely in private investments in public equity ("PIPE") transactions. Nutmeg was an investment adviser of 15 funds.  The SEC alleges in it's complaint that Nutmeg improperly commingled investor and fund assets, and misappropriated over $4 million in fund assets, failed to maintain […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged investment management company OppenheimerFunds Inc. and its sales and distribution division on June 6th., 2012, with making misleading statements about two of its mutual funds  that struggled in the credit crisis in late 2008. The investigation found that Oppenheimer used derivative instruments known as total return swaps (TRS contracts) to […]

Yesterday, June 12, 2012,  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged 14 sales agents who misled investors and illegally sold securities for a Long Island-based investment firm at the center of a reported $415 million Ponzi scheme.  The SEC alleges that the agents promised falsely that investor returns would be as high as 12 to 14 percent […]

Many of our clients ask about FINRA's BrokerCheck.  Located on FINRA's website, finra.org, BrokerCheck is defined by FINRA as "a free tool to help investors research the professional backgrounds of current and former FINRA-registered brokerage firms and brokers, as well as investment adviser firms and representatives. It should be the first resource investors turn to […]

In a May 21, 2012 article from the InvestmentNews.com website, Bruce Kelly writes that the SEC is looking at “several areas of high risk” in the securities industry. Some of the areas they are looking into  include broker-dealer due diligence, net capital levels at broker-dealers and “dark pools” of liquidity, said Julius Leiman-Carbia, associate director […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is currently allerting  all investors who suffered losses with  Brenda Eschbach of California.  Those investors may be able to recover their losses through a FINRA arbitration. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on February 14, 2012, it filed a civil injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 1, 2012, that they  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 will settle the SEC’s charges by […]

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE FROM THE SEC’S WEBSITE: "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that a federal judge in Massachusetts entered a final judgment on March 14, 2012 ordering defendant James J. Konaxis, formerly a registered representative of Beverly-based broker-dealer Sentinel Securities, Inc., to disgorge more than $483,000 in commissions earned over a two-year […]

The following article appeared on the SEC's website: "The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on February 2, 2012, United States District Judge William C. Caldwell of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania entered an order imposing a $2,500,000 civil penalty jointly and severally against defendants Robert Glenn Bard and […]