March 10, 2013
InvestmentNews
Bruce Kelly
Two notorious independent registered representatives who violated securities laws are hanging on to life in the financial advice industry, reinventing themselves as investment “teachers” or “wealth coaches.” The two former reps, Frank Bluestein and Jeffrey Forrest, sold, respectively, a Ponzi scheme and a risky hedge fund that wiped out tens of millions of dollars of […]
February 21, 2013
Reuters
Jed Horowitz
Charles Schwab Corp. can ban its clients from bringing class-action lawsuits, a securities industry regulatory panel ruled Thursday in a sweeping decision that is likely to influence other U.S. brokerage firms to follow Schwab’s policy. Schwab last year told customers it was modifying their 8.8 million account agreements to prohibit class-action suits and to modify […]
February 13, 2013
ABCNews
Jack Lew, the Treasury Secretary nominee, has faced significant scrutiny due to his past associations with Wall Street. Lew’s career includes prominent roles at Citigroup, one of the financial giants central to the 2008 financial crisis. Critics argue that his tenure at Citigroup and the substantial bonuses he received, even as the firm teetered […]
February 6, 2013
Reuters
Nate Raymond
SunTrust Banks Inc sued a Connecticut-based hedge fund on Wednesday to block arbitration of a $13 million dispute over mortgage-backed securities. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan, is the latest one brought by a bank to challenge claims by investors that their disputes can be heard and decided by a Financial Industry […]
January 28, 2013
Thomson Reuters
Suzanne Barlyn
A proposal to limit when people with certain ties to the securities industry are called to decide cases of aggrieved investors is a step in the right direction, but does not go far enough to please some arbitration lawyers. Wall Street’s industry-funded watchdog wants to exclude people associated with hedge funds and mutual funds from […]