SEC Charges Senior Executive of Brazilian Company with Fraud

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Fernando Passos, the former executive vice president of finance and investor relations of Brazilian reinsurance company IRB Brasil Resseguros S.A., for allegedly planting a false story with the media and disseminating false documents claiming that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had recently made a substantial investment in IRB. read more »

Ex-Bank of America Trader Pleads Guilty to Treasury Spoofing

BLOOMBERG

A former trader at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit admitted to manipulating Treasury prices through a spoofing scheme. read more »

SEC Uncovers $194 Million Penny Stock Schemes that Spanned Three Continents

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 16 defendants, located in the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, for participating in multi-year fraudulent penny stock schemes that generated more than $194 million in illicit proceeds. The SEC investigations leading to these charges involved assistance from securities regulators and other law enforcement authorities in more than 20 countries and are associated, in part, with parallel criminal actions announced by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. read more »

SEC Obtains TRO and Asset Freeze against Alleged Perpetrators of nearly $450 Million Ponzi Scheme

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges and an asset freeze against several Las Vegas-area individuals and companies allegedly behind a nearly half-billion dollar Ponzi scheme involving purported personal injury settlements. The SEC charged certain defendants with violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, certain individual defendants with acting as unregistered brokers, and all defendants with engaging in an unregistered securities offering. read more »