SEC

February 20, 2009 -- Saint Paul – Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty today reminded Minnesotans who were victims of the alleged Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff that they must file a formal claim with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) by Wednesday, March 4.

Last month, Governor Pawlenty wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman about the Madoff case and recently received a response from SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed an enforcement action against UBS AG, charging the firm with acting as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Limited (RIM) and four of its senior executives for stock option backdating.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Ontario, Canada-based RIM, its former Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kavelman, former Vice President of Finance Angelo Loberto, and Co-Chief Executive Officers James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis illegally granted undisclosed, in-the-money options to RIM executives and employees by backdating millions of stock options over an eight-year period from 1998 through 2006.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Robert Allen Stanford and three of his companies for orchestrating a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme centering on an $8 billion CD program.

Stanford's companies include Antiguan-based Stanford International Bank (SIB), Houston-based broker-dealer and investment adviser Stanford Group Company (SGC), and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management. The SEC also charged SIB chief financial officer James Davis as well as Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group (SFG), in the enforcement action.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settlements with KBR, Inc. and Halliburton Co. to resolve SEC charges that KBR subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root LLC bribed Nigerian government officials over a 10-year period, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), in order to obtain construction contracts. The SEC also charged that KBR and Halliburton, KBR's former parent company, engaged in books and records violations and internal controls violations related to the bribery.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged seven individuals involved in an insider trading ring that generated more than $11.6 million in illegal profits and avoided losses.

The SEC alleges that two mergers and acquisitions professionals, Nicos Achilleas Stephanou at UBS Investment Bank and Ramesh Chakrapani at Blackstone Advisory Services, L.P., tipped five individuals including Joseph Contorinis, a portfolio manager for a Jefferies Group, Inc. hedge fund, with material nonpublic information about three impending corporate acquisitions.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a settlement with Wachovia Securities, LLC that will provide more than $7 billion in liquidity to thousands of customers who invested in auction rate securities (ARS) before the market for those securities collapsed.

The settlement resolves the SEC's charges that Wachovia, headquartered in St. Louis, misled investors regarding the liquidity risks associated with ARS that it underwrote, marketed and sold.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Feb. 4, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken emergency action to stop a massive and ongoing international boiler room scheme that allegedly sold shares of U.S. penny stock issuers to investors located in Europe by misrepresenting that investors paid no sales commissions. The SEC alleges that, in fact, investors paid commissions exceeding 60 percent of the amount invested, and the fraudulent scheme raised at least $44.2 million from 1,400 investors since March 2007.

"This case demonstrates that the SEC will act aggressively to stop securities fraud that spans international borders and protect investors in U.S. markets," said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. and two of its former investment adviser representatives with securities laws violations for misleading pension consulting clients about its money manager identification process and failing to disclose conflicts of interest when recommending them to use two of the firm's affiliated services. Merrill Lynch has agreed to settle the SEC's charges and pay a $1 million penalty.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Mary L. Schapiro was sworn in this morning as the 29th Chairman of the SEC. The oath of office was administered by SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter at SEC headquarters, where Chairman Schapiro was joined by her husband, Chas Cadwell, and senior SEC staff.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today took emergency action to charge Nashville, Tenn.-based investment advisor Gordon B. Grigg and his firm ProTrust Management, Inc. with securities fraud, and obtained a court order freezing their assets. The SEC alleges that Grigg and ProTrust defrauded clients out of at least $6.5 million and misrepresented that their money was invested in the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other securities that, in reality, do not exist.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Arthur Nadel of Sarasota, Fla., with fraud in connection with six hedge funds for which he acted as the principal investment advisor. According to the SEC’s complaint, Nadel provided false and misleading information for dissemination to investors about the funds’ historical returns and falsely overstated the value of investments in the funds by approximately $300 million.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Aug. 11, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the distribution of more than $48 million to more than 12,000 investors who were victims of fraudulent financial reporting by media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, S.A. Investors receiving checks reside in the United States and in 15 other countries. More than half bought their Vivendi stock on foreign exchanges and are receiving their Fair Fund distribution in euros.

"Today we are able to provide financial remediation to investors who were misled by Vivendi's false financial reporting," said David Nelson, Regional Director of the Commission's Miami Regional Office. "I am particularly gratified that we have been able to identify and help investors not just in this country, but overseas as well."    » read more »

First Results of March 2008 SEC-CFTC Memorandum of Understanding

Washington, D.C., June 3, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that each has approved the trading and clearing of two novel derivative products — futures and option contracts based on shares of the SPDR® Gold Trust (Gold Trust), an exchange traded fund (ETF). The SEC approved trading in options on the Gold Trust shares and the CFTC approved trading in futures on them.    » read more »

June 3, 2008 -- Several college football matchups have been determined involving SEC and ACC teams for telecasts in 2008 on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN360.com. Highlights include:

* Saturday Night Football on ABC, the first weekly college football primetime series on broadcast television, will kick off its third season with Alabama vs. Clemson at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on August 30 at 8 p.m. ET. The showdown between SEC and ACC power programs will mark the first meeting between the schools since 1975. Another Saturday Night Football telecast will pit defending SEC East Champion Georgia at Arizona State, coming off a 10-3 season and a Holiday Bowl appearance, on September 20 at 8 p.m.    » read more »