Securities Industry News

The USA's Securities and Exchange Commission has commenced an action against Office Depot and some officers in a case that has the potential to redefine how companies release information.

The USA's Internal Revenue Service yesterday issued final regulations under a law change that will require reporting of basis and other information by stock brokers and mutual fund companies for most stock purchased in 2011 and all stock purchased in 2012 and later years. The reporting will be to investors and the IRS. This additional reporting will be optional for stock purchased prior to these dates.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has this week fined Fabio Massimo De Biase, a former cash equities broker, GBP252,239 for acting without integrity. The FSA has also banned De Biase from working in the financial services industry on the grounds that he is not a fit and proper person.

Following an ASIC investigation, former Macquarie Bank portfolio manager, Mr Oswyn de Silva, 37, pleaded has guilty in Sydney’s Central Local Court to insider trading on 12 occasions in contravention of s1043A(1) of the Corporations Act.

When Ramon Toledo started buying shares in Searchguy.com in August 2004, he did so acting upon information released by the company under the control of Thomas Bibiyan. The Southern District of California has granted Toledo a default judgment in respect of what amounts to pump and dump.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has charged Mark Richard McKenzie with insider trading.

Sydney stockbroker, William Frederick (Ric) Klusman, has been banned from providing financial services for three years after an ASIC investigation found that he procured secret profits for relatives when purchasing shares for Regional Express Holdings Limited (Rex) during the airline’s on-market share buy-back.

A class action has been issued in California alleging San Francisco-based Charles Schwab and Son of not acting in the best interests of investors in a fund. But, strangely, the announcement of the action claims "fraud."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Branchburg, N.J.-based investment adviser and three of her firms with operating a multi-million dollar offering fraud involving the sale of phony promissory notes to investors, many of whom are retired or unsophisticated in investments.

Pinnacle, says the SEC, is a "broker dealer based in Raleigh, North Carolina, with more than 99 per cent of its customers residing outside the United States." The bulk of its business, it is said, is to provide direct access. The SEC says it did not do due diligence properly, and failed to follow the systems it had, itself, put in place.