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The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified the brokers who raised most of the private financing for taxpayer-backed electric automaker Fisker Automotive that charges may be brought against them, in connection with a private offering in 2009. The co-founders of Advanced Equities, Inc., Keith Daubenspeck and Dwight Badger, were served in January with Wells Notices by enforcement staff from the SEC’s Chicago office. The warning informs defendants of the preliminary results of an investigation, and that findings mean a recommendation for a full hearing before the commission is likely. The subjects of the investigation are given the opportunity to...

Suspended Auburn University point guard Varez Ward is under investigation by federal authorities in an ongoing point-shaving probe, Yahoo! Sports has learned. Three sources with knowledge of the case said the FBI has been investigating Ward since late February after he and guard Chris Denson were suspended by the Tigers prior to a Feb. 25 home game against Arkansas. Two sources said Denson was also questioned as part of the point-shaving investigation, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the team after sitting out the loss to the Razorbacks. The sources said additional players have been questioned...

A well-connected company with close ties to a key Obama Administration official may be running afoul of the SEC by failing to report to its investors material events that significantly impact its bottom line. Just another day in Barack Obama’s Washington, DC “favor factory.” Capital Confidential has in the past covered the saga of PharmAthene, a company that produces “medical countermeasures to biological and chemical weapons” and its great fortune to have been awarded the sole-source contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). We have also learned that the firm has very close ties to Tara O’Toole,...

Judge Jed Rakoff has rejected the SEC’s proposed wrist slap of Citibank for selling mortgage-backed securities it knew to be of poor qualify. Effectively, what he did was join this complaint with SEC’s complaint–filed at the same time as they filed the proposed Citi settlement–against a Citi employee, Brian Stoker, in which the SEC explicitly alleged that Citi knew what it was doing when it dealt shitty securities it intended to short. By doing so, Rakoff imposed the same trial process on this complaint as on Stoker. Effectively, he’s saying, “If you’re prepared to prove that Stoker knew what he...

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Notre Dame football legend "Rudy" charged in alleged pump-and-dump stock schemeUpdated: Friday, December 16, 2011, 4:36 PM Daniel Ruettiger, the former walk-on football player at the University of Notre Dame who inspired the 1993 film “Rudy,” agreed to pay $382,000 to resolve U.S. regulatory claims he defrauded investors in his sports-drink company by touting fake taste tests and sales. Ruettiger and 12 others generated more than $11 million in illicit profits by artificially pumping up the stock of Rudy Nutrition, the firm Ruettiger founded, the SEC said in a complaint filed today at U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing six top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for lying to the public about their subprime mortgage exposure and misleading investors. Among those named in the suit are former Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd and former Freddie CEO Richard Syron. The Wall Street Journal has details of the SEC announcement: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their subprime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was," said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "These material misstatements occurred during a time of acute investor interest in financial institutions'...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages the mortgage giants held during the housing bust. Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants when the housing bubble burst in late 2006 and 2007. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during...

WASHINGTON -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages the mortgage giants held during the housing bust. Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants when the housing bubble burst in late 2006 and 2007. The four other top executives also worked for the...

NEW YORK—The Securities and Exchange Commission sued several former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including their former chief executives, alleging they misrepresented to investors their exposure to subprime mortgage loans.

Billionaire Phil Falcone, whose cozy relationship with the Obama Administration was first exposed by NLPC, may face civil fraud charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a filing yesterday by Harbinger Group Inc., Falcone and two other directors have received "Wells Notices," meaning that they are under investigation. Falcone is the Chairman, CEO and primary investor in Harbinger Group Inc., a hedge fund. Reportedly, other Harbinger investors include Soros Fund Management. Harbinger owns LightSquared, which has received an unusual waiver from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a national 4G wireless network. Media reports have...

Georgia leads LSU 10 to 7 at the end of the first half. LSU has no first downs and the score really should be 10-0 since the LSU player did not cross the goal line with the football.

In an interview with Fox News this morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that the Securities & Exchange Commission believes that under existing law they can prosecute lawmakers who trade on insider information. “The Securities & Exchange Commission is going to say in testimony submitted to our committee today that under existing law they could prosecute members of Congress guilty of using insider information to make money,” he said, POLITICO reported. Lieberman is the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which is holding a hearing today into allegations raised on '60 Minutes' last month that lawmakers are getting...

There is a problem with the Bowl Championship Series, but it’s not the one you probably think. College football doesn’t need a playoff. A traditional playoff system – an eight-team or even four-team bracket – brings nothing in the way of advantages over the current system and probably would make things considerably worse. Don’t tell me the traditional architecture for playoffs is the only – or even most – accurate way to determine a champion. The St. Louis Cardinals just won the World Series under that system despite having fewer wins in the regular season than any other team that...

Missouri football Coach Gary Pinkel was arrested by Boone County Sheriff's Department officers Wednesday night on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Pinkel was pulled over at 10:15 p.m. on Keene Street just north of Broadway, according to the incident report. He was stopped for lane and signal violations, Chief Deputy Major Tom Reddin said. The deputies developed probable cause that Pinkel was driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the report. He was cooperative with officers and taken into custody at the Boone County Jail. He posted $500 bond for the first-offense DWI arrest.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is not taking advantage of an enforcement tool that could potentially hold top Wall Street figures accountable for their role in the recent financial crisis, despite its prior success. Broker-dealers, investment advisers, and others regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission are required to supervise their representatives. If a trader engages in misconduct, the SEC can sue the management with "failure to supervise." But in some of the biggest cases the SEC has brought in recent months -- against units of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup -- the agency has sued only low-level bankers....

If anything has characterized Barack Obama's presidency, it has been his fruitless efforts to make nice with constituencies he should be punishing, or at the very least, isolating. His choice of Mary Schapiro to run the Securities and Exchange Commission was just one of many such mistakes, but it is high time for the president to admit his error and show her the door. One doesn't need to do much more than watch TheStreet's interview with her (above) at the annual SIFMA Conference in New York Monday to see why Schapiro needs to go.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are launching a broad review into the business practices of failed futures brokerage MF Global Holdings Ltd as their hunt continues for over $600 million in missing customer money. Round-the-clock shifts for examiners have become the norm as they sort through the collapse of the firm headed by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. MF Global filed for bankruptcy on Monday after risky bets on European debt scared away clients and investors. "We will look at every aspect of how the firm conducted business," Mary Schapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, told...

RBC paying $30.4M to settle SEC chargesMARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer Wednesday, September 28, 2011 WASHINGTON (AP) — RBC Capital Markets has agreed to pay $30.4 million to settle federal civil charges of misleading five Wisconsin school districts that lost $200 million invested in risky securities. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Tuesday with the brokerage firm, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Canada. The SEC said RBC Capital Markets didn’t fully disclose the risks in 2006, when the school districts purchased the investments. The agency said RBC is paying a $22 million fine, and $8.4...

The rest of college football formally surrendered to the Southeastern Conference Sunday, ending a decades-long war that had become hopelessly one-sided. The surrender took place just outside Appomattox, Va. SEC officials declined to explain why this site was chosen. "What began 85 years ago in Pasadena has been finished today," the SEC said in a statement, referring to Alabama's 1926 Rose Bowl victory over Washington, which established Southern schools as a threat. "This is our sport now."