Galleon Group LLC ex-hedge fund trader Craig Drimal pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy and securities fraud in April. He has now been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. Drimal admitted to insider trading based on information from lawyers at Ropes & Gray LLP, a firm based in Boston. The transactions involved Axcan Pharma…
Continue reading ›High-frequency trading — a process in which computer algorithms are used to trade shares, foreign exchange and derivatives at superfast speeds — earns profits by extricating tiny price differences thousands of times a day, across trading platforms. The algorithms being used are treated by their owners as top secret; in fact, many have taken legal…
Continue reading ›According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions” report for August 2011, Bluechip Securities Inc. and Muhammad Akram Khan were disciplined and fined. Bluechip was censured and fined the amount of $15,000, while Khan was suspended from association with FINRA members for 18 months and fined $385,000. Both Khan and the…
Continue reading ›Former broker Debbie Saleh and her former employer, Wedbush Inc., must pay $2.9 million to Southern California investor Rick Cooper. Saleh drained Cooper’s account between 2004 and 2009 through a process called “churning.” The churning generated a significant amount in commissions through the unauthorized purchasing and selling of annuities. According to the arbitration panel, Saleh’s…
Continue reading ›Roy Fluker Jr. was finally sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in connection with an investment and mortgage fraud scheme, something that should have taken place last December. Fluker’s son, Roy Fluker III, and daughter, Ronnanita Fluker, are already serving eight-year prison terms for the scheme. Fluker Jr., who failed to appear for sentencing…
Continue reading ›Ryan Kimura, a former Morgan Stanley Dean Witter stockbroker in Honolulu, Hawaii, was sentenced to 57 months in prison. In addition, he will pay $1.5 million to Morgan Stanley and over $500,000 plus interest to the Internal Revenue Service. Payment to the IRS will cover tax losses from 2000-2007. Kimura was charged with money laundering,…
Continue reading ›Former Nebraska City brokers Rebecca Engle and Brian Schuster were sent to prison for bilking investors out of more than $20 million — an amount which is, according to the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance investigation supervisor Thomas Sindelar, the biggest securities fraud case in history of the state. The broker misconduct of Engle…
Continue reading ›Carlo Chiaese, an investment adviser, has been sentenced to 58 months in prison and must pay restitution totaling $2.5 million for broker misconduct including failure to invest and falsified documentation. Rather than investing his client’s money, Chiaese used the money to pay for his extravagant lifestyle. Purchases included leases on a Land Rover, an Audi…
Continue reading ›Though investors who have already been “burned” by stock broker fraud or broker misconduct may have a perfectly understandable fear of getting back into the securities game, there are ways investors can help protect themselves in the future. One of the most significant protective measures an investor can take is to look into the background…
Continue reading ›A new investor alert from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority cautioned investors about scams related to investment in gold stocks. The alert, titled, “’Gold’ Stocks—Some Investments Mine Your Pocketbook,” provides information on legitimate gold investments and how to invest in them as well as dangers of illegitimate gold investments. The record price of gold bullion…
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