Jefferies Agrees To Pay $25 million For Mortgage Backed SecuritiesViolations
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged global investment bank and brokerage firm Jefferies LLC with failing to supervise its employees who sold mortgage-backed securities desk and were in turn lying to customers about pricing . An SEC investigation found that Jefferies representatives including Jesse Litvak, who the SEC charged with securities fraud last year, […]
JP Morgan Settles Suit Over Toxic Mortgage Backed Securities for $400 Million
US banking giant JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay USD 400 million in a settlement for litigation filed by Syncora Guarantee Inc. over mortgage-backed securities . Syncora said it would drop the rest of its cases against the banking giant as a result of the $400 million settlement The securities sold to Syncora came from […]
RBS reaches $275 million mortgage-backed securities settlement
On Feb. 19, RBS officials announced that the company had reached a $275 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve allegations of misleading investors in mortgage-backed securities. The settlement is the third-largest settlement in the U.S. class action against banks packaged and sold mortgage securities . This case was originally filed in 2008 by […]
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Investigating Managed Future Funds
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating the sky high fees that are charged to investors in managed futures funds. This comes after a December 19, 2013 letter that the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging sent to the CFTC asking them to work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on investigating the fees […]
Securities and Investment Lawyers Petition Congress For More Disclosures From FINRA’s BrokerCheck
A group of securities and investment attorneys has asked Congress to provide more information to consumers about the brokers that handle their money. FINRA does not go as far as some U.S. state securities regulators do in providing disclosures to investors, the group said. The report raises questions about whether the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s […]
Morgan Stanley Says $111M MBS Suit Distorts Contract Terms After Failure Of Own Underwriting
A Morgan Stanley subsidiary on Tuesday argued that a New York judge should dismiss a breach of contract suit brought by a trust over $110.8 million in losses suffered by investors in mortgage-backed securities. Morgan Stanley argued that a grant of the remedies sought by the investors would rewrite the underlying contracts . An attorney […]
U.S. Supreme Court Limits SLUSA; Allows State-Law Securities Class Actions to Proceed
On February 26, 2014, the Supreme Court decided Chadbourne & Parke LLP v. Troice, 571 U.S. ___ (2014), ruling by a 7-2 vote that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (“SLUSA”) does not bar state-law securities class actions in which the plaintiffs allege that they purchased uncovered securities that the defendants misrepresented were […]
Countrywide Alleges Fraud and Misrepresentations Claims Against It Are Time Barred
Countrywide Financial group is urging a California court to dismiss racketeering claims brought against it by Prudential Life Insurance Company. Prudential’s suit alleges that Countrywide used omissions and misrepresentations to sell low-quality mortgage backed securities to unknowing consumers. Countrywide is alleging that the claim is time barred based on an inquiry notice standard that would […]
Scottrade Admits to Wrongful Record Keeping
Last week, Scottrade Inc. became the latest entity to admit wrongdoing in connection with settling SEC charges. In a January 29, 2014 administrative order, the brokerage firm not only agreed to a $2.5 million penalty, but also admitted that it violated federal securities laws when it failed to provide the SEC with complete and accurate […]
CFTC Investigates Managed Futures Fees
In October 2013, Bloomberg.com published an article titled “How Investors Lose 89 Percent of Gains from Futures Funds”. The article examined the disconcerting disparity between fees charged and the return for investors, stating, “According to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and compiled by Bloomberg, 89 percent of the $11.51 billion of […]