January 2012 Quarterly Disciplinary Review

FINRA staff discuss examples of registered representatives’ misconduct, as featured in the October issue of FINRA’s Quarterly Disciplinary Review.

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Mutual funds pile into Diamond Foods after Pringles breakup

Diamond Foods Acting CEO Rick Wolford has several large mutual funds and other institutional investors betting that he’ll be able to turn around the troubled San Francisco company or find a buyer to take it over.

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Ford directors get compensation boost, SEC filing shows

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Members of Ford’s board of directors as well as Edsel B. Ford II received bumps in compensation in 2012 according to a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SEC Seen Mulling Weaker Role for FASB

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But in order to move forward, the U.S. would still have to “have a strong voice” in the development of international standards, the chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission says.

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Impact of sale of Central Hudson parent: widespread but uncertain

Dutchess County residents sound off on Central Hud…: CH Energy Group has agreed to be acquired by Canadian company Fortis Under a glowing overcast sky Tuesday, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp.

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SEC roots for more independent directors

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Farhan Fardaus bdnews24.com correspondent Dhaka, Feb 20 - Companies will need to have independent directors comprising at least one-third of their governing bodies if a draft of the amendment to the Corporate Governance Guidelines proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission comes through.

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February 21, 2012, issue



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Commerce executives see bonuses boosted

David Kemper and other named executives at Commerce Bancshares, holding company for Commerce Bank, will get base salary increases of either zero or 2 percent this year.

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Yelp Files for IPO

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Yelp , a site that allows users to rate local businesses, filed paperwork for its initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, according to a BusinessWeek report.

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PNC Moves President To Chief Risk Officer In Management Shuffle

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PNC Financial Services Group Inc. announced a management shuffle Friday, stripping the president title from Joseph Guyaux while making him a senior vice chairman and chief risk officer.

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Handler Thayer Commercial Practice Alert - SEC Revises ‘Qualified Client’ Definition

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The Rule adopts the same primary residence exclusion used in the recently amended definition for an “accredited investor” under Regulation D.[6] Although the Dodd-Frank Act did not require the definition of qualified client to exclude investors’ primary residences, as it did for the “accredited investor” definition, the SEC elected to include the … (more)

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ETFs For 13F Filing Season, Part II

It is safe to assume most investors would like to invest along side the smart money.

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February 17, 2012, issue



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Shaker Heights investment manager faces more SEC trouble

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A Shaker Heights investment manager has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of using $632,000 in client money to settle a government investigation into claims of defrauding clients.

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YTB sells land near headquarters for $500,000

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Vartu LLC bought the undeveloped land for $500,000, according to a filing by YTB with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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‘Occupy the SEC’ Goes Big on the Volcker Rule

Skip ahead to page 310 of the Occupy the SEC comment letter on the Volcker Rule, and there you will find Annexure B: a list of suggested changes to one of the most controversial components of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation.

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Toll Brothers Extends Early Participation Date in Exchange Offer for…

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Toll Brothers Finance Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toll Brothers, Inc. , announced today that it has extended the early participation date relating to its registered offer to exchange new 5.875% Senior Notes due February 15, 2022 for any and all of its currently outstanding 6.875% Senior Notes due 2012 and 5.95% Senior Notes due 2013 to … (more)

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An Ex-Con Con Artist Rips Off $22 Million From Teachers and Retirees

In keeping with how these things sort of progress, here is the fairly dry recitation of what was troubling the Securities and Exchange Commission about James Davis Risher.A Apparently, from approximately January 2007 through July 2010, Risher was the sole trader for a purported private equity fund operating under various names including the Safe … (more)

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February 14, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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February 15, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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February 16, 2012, issue



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Cioffi, Tannin to Pay $1.05 Million to Settle SEC Lawsuit

Former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge-fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, acquitted in 2009 of criminal charges they misled investors, agreed to pay $1.05 million to settle a related civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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A secretive hedge fund legend prepares to surface

It’s a humbling time for Louis Moore Bacon. The 55-year-old founder of the $15 billion Moore Capital Management — and one of the premier hedge fund investors of the past two decades — just weathered his second down year in the past four after a particularly ragged run in the markets.

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UPDATE 1-Wynn Resorts says SEC seeks varsity donation details

Wynn Resorts Inc said the U.S. securities regulators launched an informal inquiry into the casino company’s $135 million donation to the University of Macau.

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Owner of Empire State Building plans $1 billion IPO

The Empire State Building is seen in this 2010 file photo in New York. Investors will soon be able to own a piece of one of New York’s greatest views, as the owners of the Empire State Building filed Monday to list it on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Nicor Gas agrees to $64M settlement for ratepayers

Nicor Gas has agreed to refund customers $64 million in a decade-old accounting scandal.

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February 9, 2012, issue



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February 10, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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February 13, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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New Facebook Filings Reveal Details of its Relationship With Zynga

Facebook just amended its S-1 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the documents offer deeper insight into Facebook’s relationship with Zynga .

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Cantor slammed for ‘neutering’ the STOCK Act

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor faced criticism on Wednesday for introducing a version of the STOCK Act which many said had severely weakened the legislation.

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Zuckerberg cannot build ‘another’ Facebook

WASHINGTON: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg , along with his three top leutinants, will get about $2 million in just salaries and bonuses, but cannot work on creating a rival to the social networking giant.

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Oracle Buys Taleo

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Oracle today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Taleo Corporation , a leading provider of cloud-based talent management for $46.00 per share or approximately $1.9 billion, net of Taleo’s cash and debt.

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School Board Member Charged With Making $15 Million In Illegal Short Sales

After the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a member of the District 225 school board with making $15 million from the illegal short selling of stocks , the Northbrook resident has hired Bernie Madoff’s former lawyer.

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February 7, 2012, issue



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February 8, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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Bosses in Cross Hairs on Wall Street

Wall Street’s bleak bonus season just got bleaker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley , where it is becoming clear that traders aren’t the only ones at risk of having their pay taken back.

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Fidelity urges SEC not to implement new fund rules

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Fidelity Investments sent a letter and report to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, urging regulators not to adopt new rules for money market mutual funds that the Boston company said would drive away customers.

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David Kotz, Former Sec Inspector General, To Speak At Eei’s Public Filers Symposium

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HAWTHORNE, N.Y. February 8, 2012 — Executive Enterprise Institute , a Division of SmartPros Ltd.

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Senator Toomey Warns SEC He Will Fight Rules for Money Funds

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he wouldn’t rule out proposing legislation to protect money market mutual funds from new rules being planned at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SEC Plays ‘Patty Cake’ with Big Banks

We’ve been demanding for years now answers to a core question coming from the financial collapse of 2008.

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February 6, 2012, issue



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Hack Attack Nation

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VeriSign dropped a lollapalooza last October in a Security and Exchange Commission filing: the company, which operates the registry for the .com and .net domains, was repeatedly hacked in 2010.A Nothing serious occurred, the company soothed in a press release this week.

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Carlyle drops class-action lawsuit ban as opposition mounts

Carlyle Group LP abandoned a plan to ban shareholders from filing class-action lawsuits after regulators threatened to block a stock sale the private-equity firm is seeking to complete as soon as April.

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Apple stock sale is rotten

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Dear John: I had placed an order to sell 50 shares of Apple stock on the day the company was recently reporting quarterly earnings.

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Securities firms seek development guidelines

The Association of Securities Companies wants the government and relevant agencies to come up with development guidelines for the Thai capital markets and to amend laws to support self-regulatory organisations for higher competitiveness.

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Joint Report on International Swap Regulation

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission delivered to Congress a report on international swap regulation, as required by Section 719 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

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Mild temperatures reduce electricity sales for TVA

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The Tennessee Valley Authority said a mild winter so far has reduced electricity sales by 5% in the first quarter of the fiscal year and will cause the utility to reconsider expenditures for the rest of the year.

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Ex-Credit Suisse CDO Head Charged in Bonus Scam Says He Helped Prosecutors

A lawyer for Kareem Serageldin, the ex-global head of Credit Suisse Group AG ’s CDO business charged in a bonus-boosting fraud tied to a $5.35 billion trading book, said his client was surprised by the U.S. indictment since he has been cooperating with investigators for four years.

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Toll Brothers, Inc. Announces Exchange Offer for Certain Outstanding Debt Securities

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Toll Brothers Finance Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toll Brothers, Inc. , announced today that it has commenced a registered exchange offer to exchange new 5.875% Senior Notes due February 15, 2022 for any and all of its currently outstanding 6.875% Senior Notes due 2012 and 5.95% Senior Notes due 2013 .

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CEO Meg Whitman got $16.5M HP pay package

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Despite being one of the Silicon Valley tech chief executive officers getting $1 a year in salary, Meg Whitman got stock options when she took over at Hewlett-Packard Co The Palo Alto computer and services giant reported the pay package in a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

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Behringer Harvard: ‘Technical default’ will have little impact on Frisco Square

Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I Inc. defaulted on the balance of $44.1 million in loans it took out for its investment in Frisco Square.

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February 1, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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February 2, 2012, issue



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February 3, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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January 2012 Monthly Recap

Revisit the latest FINRA Notices, compliance resources and news from January 2012.

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SEC advisory panel concerned about crowdfunding

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An advisory committee urged U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday to relax outdated rules that trigger public financial reporting for companies, but it stopped short of backing a new capital-raising strategy known as “crowdfunding.” In a public meeting, members of the Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies voted on two proposed … (more)

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Facebook IPO: $5 Billion Filing to Sell Stock in May

Facebook, in one of the world’s most widely anticipated IPOs, or initial public offerings of stock, filed papers Wednesday afternoon to raise at least $5 billion and begin to sell stock this spring.

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The 9 most surprising facts about the Facebook IPO

It’s official: Facebook , the world’s most famous internet company, is about to go public.

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Who owns Facebook’s biggest stakes - ‘Zuck’s’ No. 1

Two classes of shares are proposed, Class A and Class B, with different voting powers.

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Former Geron CFO gets $750K severance, $400-an-hour consulting gig

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Greenwood, who had been with Geron in various jobs since 1995, left the Menlo Park-based drug development company at the end of last year.

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January 31, 2012, issue



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The Upsides of the SEC’s No-Guilt Deals for In-House Lawyers

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Consider the curious case of Jay Lapine. Between 2003 and 2009, the onetime general counsel of McKesson HBOC Inc.

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Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

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A federal judge in Burlington dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.

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Toys ‘R’ Us reshapes top executive staff

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Wayne -based retailer Toys “R” Us has made a number of management changes following a lackluster holiday season.

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Former Oak Hill exec charged with insider trading

Dale Shafer of Mason, who was later a senior vice president of WesBanco Inc. in Cincinnati, has consented to the entry of a judgment in the case, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan.

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Stocks plunge again as another SEC-stakeholder meeting fails

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Dhaka stocks plunged again on Tuesday hitting fresh 26-month low as a meeting convened by the capital market regulator with the stakeholders failed to bring any remedy to halt the collapse of the market.

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January 30, 2012, issue



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Exiting watchdog sees flaws in SEC’s rulewriting

In his final act before departing the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the agency’s inspector general, David Kotz, criticized how the agency analyzes the economic impact of some of its Dodd-Frank rules.

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Goldman’s Blankfein Receives 24,249 Shares Vested From Prior Awards -Filing

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Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Friday, Blankfein received 45,497 shares and sold 21,248 of them at $107.44 to satisfy tax withholding obligations.

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How Much Is Facebook Worth?

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More than 50 mutual funds say they own shares of the closely held social-media giant Facebook, according to investment-research firm Morningstar.

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The Sunlight Foundation: Gingrich Super PAC Super Donor Sheldon…

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who have reportedly given a combined $10 million to Winning Our Future, the super PAC that supports and is run by former staffers of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, were reportedly drawn to him by a shared view of the importance of the U.S. relationship to Israel.

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SAP Extends Offer For SuccessFactors While Government Entity Investigates

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SAP has extended yet again the deadline for its offer to buy outstanding shares of cloud software developer SuccessFactors while a U.S. government organization investigates the proposed $3.4 billion acquisition.

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January 27, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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SEC charges trader with hijacking accounts

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo adorns an office door at the SEC headquarters in Washington, June 24, 2011.

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TransCanada’s Dirty Keystone XL Jobs Claims Draw Complaint To SEC

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Based on TransCanada claims, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce declares that the Keystone XL pipeline “will create 20,000 well-paying jobs.” ThinkProgress Green has learned that TransCanada, the foreign tar sands company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, is facing a potential inquiry into whether it deliberately deceived investors by inflating … (more)

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SEC charges trader with hacking into accounts

Get Green Savvygirl Living Dave Ramsey Mid-Columbia Sports Behind the Fold Red Light District Inside Opinion Business Beat Light Notes Rock Doc column Rub of the Green Mr.

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Suing the Government? Call Scalia

Staffers inside the Securities and Exchange Commission have a nickname for the massive Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, which imposes hundreds of new federal rules on business: They call it the “Eugene Scalia Full Employment Act.” Funny, right? Maybe the joke works better if you know who Eugene Scalia is.

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Obama’s new mortgage-fraud unit has skeptics

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union pledge to create a special unit to punish fraud in mortgage finance met with skepticism Wednesday for coming so late in his term and amid signs that his administration is close to settling with large banks accused of shoddy mortgage-lending practices.

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January 25, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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January 26, 2012, issue



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Could money market funds break the buck again?

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They invest in short-term, highly rated debt issued by banks, governments and corporations worldwide.

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IPO Report: Guidewire prices IPO above range at $13

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Guidewire Software on Tuesday priced its initial public offering at $13 a share, highlighting one of two tech IPOs based on the trend of cloud computing.

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Obama announces financial crimes unit

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President Obama announced a new unit devoted to major financial crimes as he offered tough words for Wall Street during his State of the Union address.

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Prosecution wants subpoena for Corona bank accounts

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MANILA, Philippines - The prosecution has requested the impeachment court to subpoena the bank accounts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife, Cristina.

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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Management: Shareholders Beware

In an interview last Monday with veteran investigative reporter and best-selling author Gary Weiss, I described how executives at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters apparently received higher bonuses in 2011.

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January 23, 2012, issue



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January 24, 2012, issue



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‘Corona’s P11M cash advance came from unlicensed firm’

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MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona’s P11-million cash advance in 2003, which he supposedly used to pay for some of his condominium acquisitions, came from his wife’s family corporation that had “ceased to operate legally by 2007,” according to journalist and blogger Raissa Robles.

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Market cap-GDP ratio slips

The market capitalisation to GDP ratio on the Dhaka Stock Exchange fell by 17.44 percent last year due to a series of abnormal downswings.

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Investors warn that social media is fertile ground for fraud

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Social media is also changing the way some of us invest - and that’s where you need to be careful.

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MFA seeks end to ban on hedge fund advertising

If the Managed Funds Association has its way, hedge fund managers will be free to advertise and market their funds.

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Nearly $4.5 Million of Stock in Westford Company Sold in January

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According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing , William Rainville of Technology Park Drive’s Kadant Inc.

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How an Ex-Wall Street Power Player Embraced the Occupy Movement

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As president of the Pacific Exchange in the late-1990s, Warren Langley oversaw the West Coast’s biggest financial center, a trading floor where some 17 million shares of stock changed hands daily.

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Warren Langley ran the Pacific Exchange through 1999. On Friday, he’ll be marching on the banks.

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As president of the Pacific Exchange in the late-1990s, Warren Langley oversaw the West Coast’s biggest financial center, a trading floor where some 17 million shares of stock changed hands daily.

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Belvedere investment adviser pleads guilty to misusing clients’…

A Belvedere investment adviser has pleaded guilty to committing mail fraud while defrauding clients and submitting phony documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission to conceal his crime.

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Deciding whoa s rich enough for risky investments

Over the holiday, the Securities and Exchange Commission revised one of the wealth requirements for people seeking to invest in private offerings that hold the allure of big returns.

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January 19, 2012, issue

SEC News Digest


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January 20, 2012, issue



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SEC Charges UBS with Mispricing Assets in Mutual Funds

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The SEC has charged an investment advisory arm of UBS with overstating the prices of securities in three mutual funds, some times by more than 100%. The federal regulator that that the failure “to properly price securities” in three mutual funds that it managed resulted in the mismarking of the net asset values of those funds.

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