Bruce Carton

On July 23, 2014, I wrote here that squarely within the group of traders who “don’t get it” are “Investor Relations Execs Who Engage in Insider Trading:” Not too far removed from public company employees who foolishly believe they can get away with insider trading in their own company’s stock are investment relations executives who […]

In March, I began tracking here the SEC’s trials to date in FY 2014 (which began on October 1, 2013), and the results in each case. On Wednesday, August 13, 2014, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts returned a verdict in favor of the SEC in what I believe to be […]

In a joint announcement yesterday with the SEC and state regulators, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced an historic settlement with Bank of America totaling $16.65 billion in penalties and consumer relief — the “largest civil settlement with a single entity in history,” Holder stated. The settlement concerns the government’s allegations that BofA (and Merrill […]

The SEC is watching you, Oakley Country Club! For the second time in two months, the SEC brought an insider trading case against individuals who shared insider information about upcoming acquisitions with their golfing buddies from Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Mass. Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office, stated that country […]

As the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower continues to gain traction in its third full year in operation, two important questions about the ability to protect whistleblowers have surfaced: (1) the extent to which whistleblowers’ identities can actually be protected; and (2) the circumstances in which whistleblowers can claim they have been […]

On August 14, the SEC announced a case against Atlanta accountant Donald S. Toth, claiming that Toth engaged in insider trading in the stock of restaurant company O’Charley’s. The SEC alleges that Toth learned from a client on the board of O’Charley’s who was seeking tax advice that the company was about to be acquired […]

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court decision in a case where the SEC had sought to compel the the Securities Investor Protection Corp. to liquidate Stanford Group Co. — Allen Stanford’s U.S.-based broker-dealer. In 2011, SIPC concluded that there was no basis for it […]

In March, I began tracking here the SEC’s trials to date in FY 2014 (which began on October 1, 2013), and the results in each case. On Friday, August 8, 2014, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida returned a verdict in favor of the SEC in what I […]

American International Group, Inc. has agreed to pay $960 million cash to settle the 2008 securities class action filed against it related to the financial crisis. Combine with a separate $10.5 million settlement paid by another defendant, the total settlement fund in the case is a massive $970.5 million.   The settlement came after six years […]

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority announced last week that after conducting research into whether the UK should offer financial incentives to whistleblowers (as is now done in the U.S. by the SEC and other regulators), it had concluded that doing so would not be advisable. “The research showed that introducing financial incentives for whistleblowers would […]