On July 2, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action in Dallas federal court to halt what the Commission contends is a fraudulent offering of securities, known as Secured Debt Obligations (“SDOs”), by Amerifirst Funding, Inc. and Amerifirst Acceptance Corporation (together, “Amerifirst”). The SDOs are notes purportedly secured by automobile financing receivables […]
A former hedge-fund trader pleaded guilty to criminal charges involving a scheme to trade on inside information about analysts’ ratings changes at UBS AG’s securities unit before the changes became public knowledge. Mark E. Lenowitz, who formerly traded equity securities on behalf of Chelsey Capital in New York and was a partner at Q Capital […]
Losses on mortgage-backed securities have forced an Irvine brokerage firm to begin shutting down its operations, people close to the company said Thursday. At least some of the losses were said to be incurred by clients of the brokerage, Brookstreet Securities. Because of the losses, brokerage regulator NASD told Brookstreet this week to limit its […]
Brookstreet Securities Corp., an Irvine broker-dealer, has shut its doors, laid off 100 local employees and liquidated its assets because it is unable to meet margin calls on complex securities called collateralized mortgage obligations, the company’s spokeswoman Julie Mains told Register reporter John Gittelsohn today. An email sent to employees summed up the situation as […]
Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the credit crunch is starting to hit some bond mutual-fund investors in unexpected ways, some are now taking legal recourse for losses in their investments. In the most recent instance, an Indiana charity filed an arbitration complaint against Memphis, Tenn., broker-dealer Morgan Keegan & Co. unit of Regions […]