SEC chair concedes reining in flash boys is harder than expected

Preventing flash traders from wreaking havoc is easier said than done.

It's been more than two years since Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White said her agency wanted to rein in aggressive, high-frequency trading that could have a destabilizing impact on markets. She said Wednesday that crafting a rule is proving difficult, and that the agency's next step would be publishing its work on the issue and seeking public comment. That means it could be years before a rule is in place, and the job will probably fall to White's successor.

Telia Asked to Pay $1.4 Billion to Settle Bribery Probe

Telia Company AB said Thursday that U.S. and Dutch authorities have proposed that the partly state-owned Swedish telecom carrier pays $1.4 billion to settle allegations it distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to secure business in Uzbekistan.

"Our initial reaction to the proposal is that the amount is very high," said Telia chairwoman Marie Ehrling.

However, she said Telia's entry into Uzbekistan "was done in an unethical and wrongful way and we are prepared to take full responsibility."

The hefty number is the latest illustration of how U.S. authorities are targeting what prosecutors believe are the spoils of alleged corrupt practice overseas. read more »

National Public Radio Marketplace Telia segment  from 9/15/16 listen here »

CFTC Wins Jury Verdict in Commodity Pool Fraud Case

Aitan Goelman, Director of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement, said: “The CFTC takes its mission of protecting consumers from fraud and ensuring market integrity very seriously. This case is another demonstration that we will be relentless in pursuing this mission, including successfully prosecuting cases through trial where necessary.”

Specifically, the jury found that Reisinger operated the NCCN commodity pool without being registered as a Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) as required under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. The jury also found that Reisinger was a controlling person for ROF, and therefore liable for ROF’s violations of the federal commodities laws. ROF failed to answer the complaint. On September 2, 2015, the Court entered a default judgment against ROF and permanently enjoined it from engaging in any activity related to commodity trading. read more »

Energy-Focused PE Firm Settles With SEC For $3.5M

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a cease-and-desist settlement agreement Wednesday with energy-focused private equity firm First Reserve Management LP for $3.5 million on charges that the group held conflicts of interest in its funds that it failed to disclose to investors, including legal fees.

First Reserve negotiated a legal fee discount from an unnamed law firm for itself for services based on the large volume of work the firm performed for the funds, but the funds didn’t receive a discount on those services, the SEC charged. First Reserve, a Cayman Islands limited partnership headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, settled the administrative proceeding without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings read more »

Monsanto Whistleblower Wants SEC to Go after Deloitte

We hope the agency will probe Monsanto’s outside auditor Deloitte for the role we believe it played in enabling the company to overstate earnings and issue misleading financial statements – not only once, but twice read more »

SEC's Spread Bet Argument Fails In Insider Trading Dispute

A California federal magistrate judge on Wednesday shot down arguments from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in an insider trading case stemming from whether spread bets over the medical company InterMune Inc. were made illegally. read more »

3rd Party Can't Evade Blackwater FCA Docs Request

Triple Canopy Inc. will have to comply with a third-party subpoena after a Virginia federal magistrate judge refused Thursday to let the security contractor off the hook in a False Claims Act suit accusing Blackwater successor Academi of falsifying firearms qualifications for U.S. Department of State guards in Afghanistan. read more »

Two Former Executives of Foreign Defense Contractor Charged in Expanding Fraud and Corruption Probe

Two former executives of a foreign defense contractor have been charged in an indictment unsealed today with participating in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent information, price quotes, claims and invoices to the U.S. Navy in an effort to steal millions of dollars as part of a years-long corruption and fraud scheme. read more »

'Heartless' U.S. mortgage modification scheme leads to 16-year prison term

A California man was sentenced on Thursday to 16 years in prison for his role in what prosecutors said was the largest mortgage modification scheme ever prosecuted, involving more than 30,000 homeowners defrauded out of $31 million.

Dionysius Fiumano, a former sales manager at Irvine, California-based Vortex Financial Management Inc, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan, who said the harm to victims had been "enormous financially and emotionally."

"This was a callous scheme and really a heartless one," Keenan said. read more »