Crime on Wall Street - It's a way of life « Thread Started on Jun 20, 2006, 10:57pm »

Goldman Sachs Added as Defendant in Fannie Mae Suits "Complaints allege that Goldman, Sachs & Co. violated U.S. securities laws while allegedly arranging Fannie Mae-sponsored bond deals, the brokerage said in its quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The deals relate to real estate mortgage investment conduits, which are bonds collateralized with mortgage-backed securities, MarketWatch reported." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1160188954&page=1 NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday said it fined Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) $500,000 and censured the firm for failing to report short interest positions in hundreds of securities for as long as 20 years. http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1163000912&page=1#1163000912 November 8, 2006 NYSE Regulation, the regulatory body of the NYSE Group Inc., hit four firms and 12 individuals with disciplinary actions today. http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1163038833&page=1#1163038833 "Ten of Nation's Top Investment Firms Settle Enforcement Actions Involving Conflicts of Interest Between Research and Investment Banking Historic Settlement Requires Payments of Penalties of $487.5 Million, Disgorgement of $387.5 Million, Payments of $432.5 Million to Fund Independent Research, and Payments of $80 Million to Fund Investor Education and Mandates Sweeping Structural Reforms The ten firms against which enforcement actions are being announced today are: Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. (Bear Stearns) Credit Suisse First Boston LLC (CSFB) Goldman, Sachs & Co. (Goldman)" Lehman Brothers Inc. (Lehman) J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. (J.P. Morgan) Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Incorporated (Merrill Lynch) Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated (Morgan Stanley) Citigroup Global Markets Inc. f/k/a Salomon Smith Barney Inc. (SSB) UBS Warburg LLC (UBS) U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc. (Piper Jaffray) http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1139169328 Prudential to Settle Rapid Trade Dispute for US $600 million, which will allow the company to avoid criminal prosecution. http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1156633359&page=1#1156647762 MORGAN STANLEY FINED OVER TRADE REPORTING. Morgan Stanley was fined $500,000 by regulators who claimed the world's second-largest securities firm inaccurately reported short sales of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Manhattan-based firm's Morgan Stanley DW Inc. brokerage unit inadequately supervised its trade-reporting system, according to a disciplinary order released yesterday by the NYSE's regulatory division. Last month, the same unit was fined more than $1million by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for allegedly failing to supervise a broker who defrauded customers. In September, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay the NASD $2.9million for "widespread" violations. http://tinyurl.com/y67erp Bank of America Announces Mutual Funds Agreements CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America today announced agreements in principle with the New York Attorney General and the Securities and Exchange Commission over matters related to improper late day trading and market timing of mutual funds. Under the agreements, Bank of America agrees to pay $250 million in total disgorgement and restitution. http://cmkxgroup.proboards88.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1163196766&page=1#1163196766 Morgan Stanley fined $2.9 million for "extensive violations" dealing with reporting obligations, short sales and a slew of other NASD, Securities and Exchange Commission and other rules. http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1157583913&page=1 "A lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court in 2004 alleged that a hedge fund operated by the Boston firm had been executing naked short sales through an account at Goldman Sachs, targeting American Business Financial Services stock." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1138722905 "And even then, let's say that they continue to sell naked, helping out their hedge fund clients – you know, a big house like UBS or Lehman or Bear or Goldman just sells and sells, day after day." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1137782520 "Early last year, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) agreed to pay $40 million each to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations about laddering. JPMorgan previously had paid $25 million to settle an SEC case arising out of the same investigation, although the agency didn't accuse JPMorgan of laddering or other market manipulation. " http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1145929566 WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- NASD has imposed a $200,000 fine against EKN Financial Services Inc. of Woodbury, NY -- along with CEO Anthony Ottimo, President Thomas Giugliano, Head Trader William Baker and Financial and Operations Principal Michael Benvenuto -- for engaging in improper short selling in connection with three unregistered securities offerings, commonly referred to as PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) deals, and other violations. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061102/dcth029.html?.v=75&printer=1 "a scheme that implicates hedge funds, Smith Barney, Goldman Sachs and a aptly named company called "Flip Firm", who helped to cover the trail of the naked short sellers" http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1139876932 "Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have a hammerlock on providing hedge fund services after spending more than $200 million a year on trading systems, offering more stock for short sales and courting former employees who left to start their own hedge funds, according to a survey by Tremont Capital Management Inc., an industry consulting firm in Rye, New York." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1142527283 "Someone explain to me how Goldman and whomever else signed off on the DD for REFCO when it IPOed last August missed the CEO's hidden $500 million in debt and now this. Something is broken here folks, and broken bad.." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1142421037 "Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and 10 other banks had outlined in a Dec. 16 letter to the Fed that they would halve the number of unconfirmed transactions by May, compared with the amount outstanding in September." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140140818 "The Post states that regulators will be looking for the trading and customer ledgers of Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140122248 "All 20 members of DTCC's board, including Jill M. Considine, Chair and CEO, and Donald F. Donahue, COO, DTCC; Jonathan E. Beyman, CEO, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); Randolph L. Cowen, Global Head of Technology and Operations, Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS); Dianne Schueneman, Senior VP, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), New York; Douglas Shulman, President, NASD, Inc., Washington, DC; and Timothy J. Theriault, President, The Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ: NTRS); and Catherine R. Kinney, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, New York Stock Exchange, had been asked by Shichtman to "reign in" Thompson and other high executives of DTCC following two documented instances of media tampering involving FinancialWire." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140013365 "Utah and Connecticut regulators' first line of attack will be to get Wall Street firms' trading records via the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which tracks and settles all stock trades. Regulators will be looking for the trading and customer ledgers of Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which all have large and highly lucrative clearance operations" http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140047107 "Goldman said on Dec. 16 that it paid Chief Executive Officer Henry Paulson about $37 million in shares and stock options." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1137020115 "This year's bonus total for Wall Street was over $21 Billion with Goldman Sachs handing out an average of $500,000 to their employees. Abelow worked for Goldman Sachs." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140954602 "The original Stockholders of the Federal Reserve Banks in 1913 were the Rockefeller's, JP Morgan, Rothschild's, Lazard Freres, Schoellkopf, Kuhn-Loeb, Warburgs, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs." http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1141000934 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More from www.sanitycheck.com December 3, 2002 Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD), the Salomon Smith Barney unit of Citigroup, the Deutsche Bank Securities unit of Deutsche Bank and the U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray unit of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB ) each agreed to pay $1.65 million in fines for allegedly violating e-mail record-keeping requirements. The fines were assessed to each company by the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASD. In accepting the penalties, the broker-dealers neither admit nor deny the allegations. December 20, 2002 Late last night regulators and investment banks agreed to a series of fines and sanctions in response to Wall Street's mistreatment of individual investors through bastardized, conflicted research. The total tab in fines is $1 billion. Citigroup (NYSE: C), parent of Salomon Smith Barney, took the largest hit, at $325 million, but a baker's dozen of other Wall Street firms got fines, including Credit Suisse First Boston (NYSE: CSR) at $150 million, and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD) at $50 million apiece. On top of these fines the companies will be required to fund a trust as seed capital for an independent stock-analysis entity. April 4, 2003 Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, a unit of Goldman Sachs, and four employees agreed to be censured and fined $435,000 for alleged trading misconduct on the floor of the exchange between 1999 and 2002. Although Spear's Amex floor operations were sold off in late 2002, it remains the largest NYSE specialist outfit. April 28, 2003 Goldman Sachs was found to have "issued research reports that were not based on principles of fair dealing and good faith .. contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims.. and/or contained opinions for which there were no reasonable bases." The firm was fined $110 million dollars, for a total of $119.3 million dollars in fines in six months. September 4, 2003 In a settlement with the SEC, Goldman Sachs & Co., a unit of Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS ), agreed to pay $4.3 million in restitution and a $5 million penalty related to improper trading in U.S. Treasury securities and futures. Without admitting or denying the findings, Goldman consented to the SEC's order. The restitution and penalty relate to improper trading in 30-year bonds on Oct. 31, 2001, that the SEC alleges was caused by embargoed information received by then senior economist John Youngdahl. The SEC has filed a civil complaint against Youngdahl and Peter Davis, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant, who allegedly supplied Youngdahl with a tip that the U.S. Treasury was about to announce the suspension of the 30-year bond. Youngdahl has also been charged with seven counts of criminal activity by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Davis, also charged by the U.S. attorney, has already pleaded guilty. A lawyer for Youngdahl says that his client intends to fight the charges. (See "Goldman Scuffs Its Shoes.") March 15, 2004 Goldman Sachs& Cowas ("Goldman")censured and fined $15,000 for the following conduct. On 21 occasions during the fourth quarter 2002, and on 23 occasions during the first and second quarter of 2003, Goldman failed to expose customer orders it represented as agent for 30 seconds prior to entering offsetting and interacting firm proprietary orders. (ISE Rule 717(d)) Goldman failed to maintain satisfactory written procedures to assure compliance with proper facilitation of customer orders. (ISE Rule 401) The fine was composed of $10,000 for violations of 717(d) and $5,000 for the written supervisory procedures violation. July 1, 2004 Goldman Sachs Group agreed to pay $2 million to settle an administrative proceeding with the SEC. According to the SEC, sales traders at Goldman violated the waiting period for marketing an IPO before a registration became effective. Additionally, the SEC alleged that a Goldman executive spoke to the media about an IPO by PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) before an initial registration was filed. In the settlement, Goldman neither admitted nor denied the findings. February 17, 2005 Following several months of negotiations, the parent companies of the five largest specialists at the New York Stock Exchange revealed nearly $240 million in total fines and restitution related to alleged NYSE rule violations. In the agreements in principle, still being finalized by the SEC and NYSE, the companies claim they will neither admit nor deny findings that allege the specialists failed to maintain a fair or orderly market. The Spear, Leeds & Kellogg unit of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ) will pay a total of $45.5 million. January 26, 2005 Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have agreed to pay a combined $80m (£43m) to settle allegations that they manipulated markets to ensure big first day gains in flotations during the stock market boom. The Wall Street banks were accused of guaranteeing clients bigger allocations in initial public offerings if they agreed to buy more of the shares when they started trading. The scheme is known on Wall Street as "laddering". March 22, 2005 The NASD fined a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit $1 million for hiding initial public offering allocations after being pressured by clients demanding anonymity. The regulator said Spear, Leeds & Kellogg LP, which in January was renamed Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP, used its system to circumvent the Depository Trust Corp.'s IPO Tracking System, which lets underwriters monitor the quick trading, or "flipping," of new issues. DTC provides clearance and settlement services to the securities industry. The NASD fined a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit $1 million for hiding initial public offering allocations after being pressured by clients demanding anonymity. The regulator said Spear, Leeds & Kellogg LP, which in January was renamed Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP, used its system to circumvent the Depository Trust Corp.'s IPO Tracking System, which lets underwriters monitor the quick trading, or "flipping," of new issues. DTC provides clearance and settlement services to the securities industry. April 1, 2005 In Indonesia, Goldman has had an ongoing problem largely ignored by the U.S. media. According to the Hong Kong Standard, on 3-4: "Goldman Sachs Group colluded with Indonesia's state oil company, Pertamina, to ensure Frontline buys two supertankers for as much as US$56 million (HK$436.8 million) below the market price in July 2004, the country's anti-monopoly agency said." Goldman was fined $15.76 million by Indonesia, a levy that came in close proximity to another fine, in which Goldman was fined $1 million by the NASD in a case that involved withholding IPO information from the market. June 9, 2005 NASD today announced that it has ordered three firms - Morgan Stanley & Co, J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., and Goldman, Sachs & Co. - to pay more than $2.9 million following sales of restricted securities in violation of lock-up agreements as required by Each of the firms, or entities or individuals affiliated with the firms, acquired the securities from issuers in private placements prior to each issuer's IPO. Each of the firms subsequently served as an underwriter of the issuer's IPO. Under NASD rules, certain of the private placement securities were deemed underwriting compensation and were restricted from sale for a period of one year from the date of the IPO. In addition, NASD rules provided that if a member firm agreed to restrict the sale of securities for an additional period of time - one or two years - additional discounts would be provided to the value assigned to the shares for purposes of determining underwriting compensation.NASD rules. August, 2005 The NASD censured and fined 20 firms a total of $1.65 million for late and inaccurate reporting of municipal bond trades. Goldman Sachs was fined $140,000. February 20, 2006 Securities regulators are moving to crack down on an online brokerage for allegedly permitting a controversial Wall Street trading practice called "naked shorting.'' Online brokerage TradeStation (TRAD:Nasdaq) recently disclosed that regulators at the NASD have notified the firm that some of its customers may have engaged in improper short sales. The Florida-based brokerage said in a filing that regulators could fine the firm for nearly 200 infractions that took place in 2004. TradeStation says regulators have found 172 improper short trades made during a two-month period in 2004. The trades allegedly were improper because they were made without an "affirmative determination" that TradeStation could either "receive delivery of the security on behalf of the customer'' or "borrow the security on behalf of the customer.'' TradeStation says the short sales being examined by regulators were "authorized and arranged'' by Bear Stearns (BSC), the big Wall Street firm that processes and executes trades for the smaller brokerage. A Bear Stearns spokesman declined to comment. Apr 12, 2006 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- NYSE Regulation Inc. on Wednesday said it fined Spear Leeds Kellogg Specialists LLC $200,000 for improperly contacting companies considering listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The alleged contact was made between June 2003 and March 2004, regulators said. The NYSE also faulted Spear Leeds, a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for failing to have proper systems in place to meet its disclosure obligations. Copyright ©2006 Bob O'Brien http://thesanitycheck.com/BobsSanityCheckBlog/tabid/56/EntryID/311/Default.aspx ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hartford Fincl Units To Pay $55M In SEC « Thread Started on Nov 8, 2006, 1:47pm » http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1163011652&page=1#1163011652 http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards70.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1162933910