(FINRA publishes a quarterly review to provide firms with a sampling of recent disciplinary actions involving misconduct by registered representatives. This sample includes settled matters and decisions in litigated cases (National Adjudicatory Council (NAC) decisions and SEC decisions in FINRA cases). These summaries call attention to, and remind registered representatives and member firms of, specific […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into the VelocityShares 2x Long VIX Short Term Exchange Note, managed by Credit Suisse Group AG, which had about $700 million in assets before the decline, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. The Massachusetts’s securities regulator and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority also known as FINRA, is hoping to make information about brokers more accessible to the investors, which they feel would hold those in the industry more accountable for their actions. In September, FINRA voted to submit proposals to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would make information in […]

Soreide Law Group is currently investigating Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (AOD). There were nearly 220 million shares sold to the public with a Closed-End Fund trading 31.45% above its Net Asset Value. It may soon be no longer one of the more favored of the Alpine funds. Alpine has recently disclosed that they have […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged three former brokers at JP Turner & Co. in Atlanta, traded excessively in accounts of seven clients from January, 2008, through December, 2009. Regulators reported that these three brokers churned their client's accounts and received $845,000 in commissions and fees for themselves and the brokerage. Unfortunately, their customers lost […]

On the SEC's website they write that under the Securities Act of 1933, any offer to sell securities must be registered with the SEC or meet an exemption. Regulation D (or Reg D) contains three rules providing exemptions from the registration requirements. While companies using a Reg D exemption do not have to register their […]

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 […]