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, lied to customers about the prices that the firm paid for certain mortgage-backed securities. Lying about those prices mislead customers about the true amount of profits being earned by the firm in its trading. Jefferies’ policy required supervisors to review the electronic communications of traders and salespeople in order to flag any untrue or misleading information provided customers. However, the policy was not implemented in a way to detect misrepresentations about price .

Jefferies agreed to pay $25 million to settle the SEC’s charges as well as a parallel action announced today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

If you or someone you know has lost money as a result of an investment, please contact Richard Frankowski at 888-741-7503 to discuss your potential legal remedies.