Articles Posted in Investment Fraud

According to the New York Times, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that a new inter-agency task force has been created to address and “(halt) fraud involving mortgages, securities, economic stimulus programs and government bailouts.” In a speech to a civic group in West Palm Beach, Florida, Attorney General Holder had a message for those…

With all of the talk these days about the need to find alternative energy sources, there is a real demand for “Green” energy. There are a lot of legitimate entrepreneurs out there looking for investors to put up money to fund new energy-saving environmentally-friendly ideas. With every legitimate entrepreneur however, comes a hundred scam artists…

According to the Courthouse News Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined Regions Bank $1 million for its role in an investment scam. SEC claims that Regions Bank’s participation with an investment scam raised $255 million of funds through “exorbitant, undisclosed commissions and fees” from 14,000 investors. These investors were mostly from Latin America.…

According to The Daily Breeze, church members of Hope Chapel Christian Church, which is located in Hermosa Beach, California, are suing a former pastor, alleging that he has scammed them out of thousands of dollars. The church members have also sued the church, alleging that they were discouraged from filing a lawsuit, having been told it…

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) press release, the SEC and the Alabama Securities Commission (ASC) have charged Aura Financial Services, Inc. (Aura), a Birmingham, Alabama based broker-dealer, with churning of custormer accounts, “widespread supervisory failures” and other securities violations. The SEC and ASC believe that the actions of Aura, including several senior officers…

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Richard Karp, a trader from Fort Myers, Florida, with fraud relating to a fake press release the SEC says he issued in an effort to manipulate a company’s stock price. Karp allegedly released a false announcement from WCI Communities, Inc. to the media, which in turn caused the company’s stock price to…

According to today’s Wall Street Journal in an article entitled Brokers Abandon Wall Street, the number of brokers leaving brokerage firms is on the rise due to slumping markets and shrinking fees.  In April alone, 2,800 brokers left the securities industry.  At this pace, 35,000 brokers will exit the industry by year end.  That would be record by a…

According to the Wall Street Journal today, Massachusetts securities regulators have begun an investigation into whether State Street Corp. misled pension funds investors by falsely repesenting that some its bonds funds were low risk vehicles even though they were actually invested in volatile mortgage-backed securities. State Street is one of the largest managers of index funds. It is currently facing several…

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Frederick Barton pled guilty today to defrauding a 90-year-old woman, who has Alzheimer’s disease, of almost her entire life savings.  Barton will be sentenced for wire fraud on June 23rd. Barton was fired in 2002 from a national brokerage firm. Thereafter, he began his own investment firms, Barton Asset Management…