Archive

January 27, 2014

The SEC sanctioned California-based investment adviser Western Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of Legg Mason,  for concealing investor losses that resulted from a coding error and engaging in cross trading that favored some clients over others.  The company agreed to pay more than $21M to settle the SEC’s charges as well as a related matter by the DOJ. SEC

January 24, 2014

The SEC charged public accounting firm KPMG with violating rules that require auditors to remain independent from the public companies they’re auditing to ensure they maintain their objectivity and impartiality.   An SEC investigation found that KPMG broke auditor independence rules by providing prohibited non-audit services such as bookkeeping and expert services to affiliates of companies whose books they were auditing.  Some KPMG personnel also owned stock in companies or affiliates of companies that were KPMG audit clients.  KPMG agreed to pay $8.2M to settle the SEC’s charges.  SEC

January 9, 2014

The SEC charged San Francisco-based snack foods company Diamond Foods and its former CFO in an accounting scheme to falsify walnut costs in order to boost earnings and meet estimates by stock analysts.  Diamond Foods agreed to pay $5M to settle the SEC’s charges.  SEC

December 8, 2015

A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted Anthony Brandel and James Warras of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud for their roles in an approximately $10 million international investment fraud scheme involving numerous victims.  According to evidence presented at trial, Brandel and Warras conspired with others in the US and Switzerland to promote investments and loan instruments they knew to be fraudulent.  Specifically, they misrepresented to victims using fabricated bank documents that, for an up-front payment, a Swiss company known as the Malom (Make A Lot of Money) Group AG would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans.  DOJ

December 2, 2015

Franklin American Mortgage Company agreed to pay $70 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements.  Specifically, First American audits identified substantial percentages of seriously deficient loans but the company reported very few deficiencies to HUD, causing the FHA to insure hundreds of loans that were not eligible and, as a result, the FHA suffered substantial losses when it later paid insurance claims on those loans.  DOJ

November 6, 2015

Former CEO of TierOne Bank Gilbert G. Lundstrom was convicted for orchestrating a scheme to defraud TierOne’s shareholders and to mislead regulators by concealing more than $100 million in losses on loans and declining real estate.  In 2014, co-conspirators James Laphen, TierOne’s former president and chief operating officer, and Don Langford, TierOne’s former chief credit officer, pleaded guilty to multiple felonies in connection with their participation in the scheme.  DOJ

November 5, 2015

A federal jury convicted Anthony Allen and Anthony Conti, former Rabobank derivative traders, for manipulating the London InterBank Offered Rates (LIBOR) for the US Dollar and the Yen, benchmark interest rates to which trillions of dollars in interest rate contracts were tied.  DOJ

November 4, 2015

Tampa, Florida investment advisor and founder of OM Global Investment Fund LLC Gignesh Movalia was sentenced to 18 months in prison and to pay $5,394,419 in restitution for perpetrating a $9 million investment fraud scheme involving Facebook stock.  In connection with his guilty plea, Movalia admitted raising more than $9 million from 130 investors by falsely claiming to have access to pre-initial public offering shares of Facebook Inc.  DOJ

October 20, 2015

Paris-based Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, owned by Crédit Agricole S.A. and which operates in over thirty countries, agreed to pay $787.3 million in criminal and civil penalties for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act.  Between August 2003 and September 2008, Crédit Agricole subsidiaries in Geneva knowingly moved approximately $312 million through the US financial system on behalf of sanctioned entities located in Sudan, Burma, Iran and Cuba.  To facilitate these illegal transactions, these subsidiaries used deceptive practices which prevented the government, Crédit Agricole’s New York branch and other US financial institutions from filtering for, and consequently blocking or rejecting, the sanctioned payments.  Whistleblower Insider

October 16, 2015

The US resolved for $4 million a False Claims Act action against the estate and trusts of the late Layton P. Stuart, former owner and president of One Financial Corporation, and its subsidiary, One Bank & Trust N.A., both based in Little Rock, Arkansas.  According to the government, Stuart and One Financial violated the False Claims Act by making false statements about the financial condition of One Financial and One Bank to induce the Department of the Treasury to invest Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds in One Financial.  Stuart allegedly diverted One Bank funds for personal use, including his purchase of luxury vehicles for his wife and children.  He was terminated from One Bank in September 2012. DOJ