Enforcement Actions

The Monetary Authority (MA) has suspended Miss LEUNG Wai Yu’s relevant particulars from the HKMA register maintained under section 20(1)(ea) of the Banking Ordinance for three months from 20 November 2009 to 19 February 2010. This is the first Lehman related case against an individual - but it will not be the last HKMA says.

A mortgage broker from Birmingham, Mohammed Hanif, has been banned from the industry after the FSA discovered a trail of lies about the management of his business and how it was run.

It's a classic scam: putting oneself or one's associates between one's employer and the market and making a secret profit. That's what Ezra C Levy is accused of doing at investment company Boston Provident.

58 year old Theodore W Urban held a number of licences from the USA's Securities and Exchange Commission, where he had been an Assistant Director in the then "Division of Market Regulation." There was therefore little excuse for his alleged failures as a member of the Board of Ferris Baker Watts where he supervised the compliance department.

More importantly, it shows how compliance officers are exposed, and why they must have independence and authority.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has paid a civil penalty of AUD100,000 for failures to immediately update ASX with price sensitive information relating to Lehman Brothers and other corporate failures. Its delay was four and a quarter hours, but that meant that information was filed after ASX had closed that day.

38 year old Tony E Morrison of Mansfield, Texas, the president of Texas Securities Partners LLC, a Delaware registered company, has entered into a consent order with the SEC.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has issued two banning notices, one in respect of Aaron KO Wai Lun (10 years) and the other in respect of TONG Dick Kwong (ten months)

Australian companies regulator ASIC has today obtained an order in the Federal Court in Perth to wind up Finchley Central Funds Management Limited.

The USA's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today that on 21 September, 2009, it filed a settled civil action against Regions Bank (Regions) in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, for its role in connection with a Florida-based offering fraud by unregistered broker-dealers U.S. Pension Trust Corp. and U.S. College Trust Corp. (collectively, USPT).

ASIC yesterday obtained ex-parte interim orders in the Federal Court of Australia restraining Pacific Blue Securities Pty Ltd and its sole director Mr Sean Fogarty from disposing of assets and prohibiting Mr Fogarty from leaving Australia without the consent of the Court. This is further to ex-parte interim orders obtained by ASIC on 10 September 2009.