Securities Industry News

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and New Zealand Securities Commission have jointly published updated guidance for Australian and New Zealand issuers offering shares, debentures or interests in managed or collective investment schemes in both countries.

On Friday 18 February, Mrs Tamara Newing, of Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia, was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria to a term of 21 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to 10 counts of market manipulation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Long Island-based money manager and his two firms with engaging in a fraudulent investment program that generated more than $8 million in illicit commissions and fees.

Count the zeros: 15,000,000,000 - that's how many shares Gendarme Capital Corporation and two executives, Ezat Rahimi and Ian Lamphere are accused of buying at deep discounts and then dumped, bypassing federal disclosure laws, says the SEC. But despite the vast numbers of shares, the profits they made were surprisingly small.

Peggy YAM Chin Yui was employed by CITIC Ka Wah Bank but now she has been banned from the securities industry in Hong Kong after it was found that she forged signatures on documents to circumvent internal controls for customer due diligence.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says it has obtained more than USD860,000 in restitution and civil monetary penalties in a federal judgment against defendants Paul Abad of Orange County Calif., and his companies, Thirteen Thirty-Two, Inc. and Thirteen Thirty-Two, Inc. trading as MRTS Asset Management. The Order includes extensive bans.

"I'm not guilty," said 53 year old Charles "chuck" Davis when he surrendered to the FBI in California yesterday after being named in an investigation into an investment scheme that it is alleged resulted in USD2.4 million in losses.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained orders for the payment of more than USD2.8 million in restitution and civil monetary penalties in a federal judgment order against defendants Patrick J. Dailey of Dana Point, Calif., and his company, Strongbow Investments GP, LLC (Strongbow), of Austin, Texas.

How closely do you supervise your young traders? And how well do you police them? The case of John HARTMAN, a dealer with Australian company Orion Asset Management Limited (Orion) raises some interesting risk and management issues.

After yesterday's reporting (here) of a rash of actions by Irving Picard, the trustee in the liquidation of Bernard Madoff's company, there was even more activity. The courts - and lawyers - are going to be very busy.