Article: UK banks fined €1bn by EU for rigging foreign exchange market

Article - Media, Publications

UK banks fined €1bn by EU for rigging foreign exchange market

Kalyeena Makortoff, 16 May 2019

Five banks including Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have been fined more than €1bn (£875m) by the European Union for rigging the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market.

The European commission said the banks, which also include Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), formed two cartels to manipulate the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies, including the US dollar, the euro and the pound.

The commission’s penalty adds to the £1.3bn in fines imposed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority in 2014 over the same case. While the FCA’s penalty focused on the lender’s breach of regulations, the EU’s fine deals with how their behaviour dampened competition.

“These cartel decisions send a clear message that the commission will not tolerate collusive behaviour in any sector of the financial markets,” the European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.

The banking industry has been hit with billions in fines worldwide over the last decade for rigging benchmarks used in many day-to-day financial transactions, and are now at risk of private lawsuits.

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Article: How Naked Short-Selling Helped Support Uber’s Flailing Stock

Article - Media

How Naked Short-Selling Helped Support Uber’s Flailing Stock

Evan Niu

The Motley Fool, 15 May 2019

The public debut of the largest ridesharing company, Uber (NYSE:UBER), has not gone well. Widespread investor pessimism over the sustainability of ridesharing economics helped push shares down after going public last Friday, following the IPO pricing at the low range of expectations. An estimated 81% of the equity capital that Uber raised in the private markets is now sitting in the red, according to Axios.

Uber’s underwriters were apparently so concerned about the debut that they made a rare move: naked short-selling.

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Article: As Morgan Stanley’s “Nuclear Option” Failed, Uber Stock Plunged

Article - Media

As Morgan Stanley’s “Nuclear Option” Failed, Uber Stock Plunged

ZeroHedge, 14 May 2019

Uber’s underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, were so (rightfully) worried that the company’s IPO was going to crater in the days after its public offering, they deployed what CNBC is calling “a nuclear option” and shorted IPO stock naked, even beyond the traditional greenshoe. Of course, anyone in the industry would simply call this “selling to the dumb money ahead of an obviously overpriced IPO,” but we digress.

This naked shorting is utilized as a tactic to “support the stock” in addition to the usual 15% greenshoe that underwriters overallocate just so they can cover into, if the stock is plunging, with hopes of stabilizing the drop (Morgan Stanley was also Uber’s very much ineffective stabilization agent). CNBC referred to the short covering as “a technique that goes above and beyond the traditional help a new offering can get.”

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Article: Uber underwriters worried about the IPO deployed unusual ‘naked short’ tactic to support the stock

Article - Media

Uber underwriters worried about the IPO deployed unusual ‘naked short’ tactic to support the stock

Leslie Picker, Hugh Son

CNBC, 14 May 2019

Uber’s underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, were so worried the company’s initial public offering had run into trouble, they deployed a nuclear option ahead of the deal last week, so they could provide extra support for the stock, four people with knowledge of the move said.

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Article: Investors Psyched To Learn That Morgan Stanley Was “We Need A Naked Short”-Level Of Confident As Uber IPO Approached

Article - Media

Investors Psyched To Learn That Morgan Stanley Was “We Need A Naked Short”-Level Of Confident As Uber IPO Approached

Thornton Mcenery

Dealbreaker, 14 May 2019

Uber’s appeal as a public company at this stage of its life has always been a mystery to us, yet even we are a little shocked that the bankers taking it to market were so sure it was priced to drop that they went through the trouble of building a naked short into the IPO and then sold that decision to investors as what we can only define as “Dipshit Insurance.”

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Fined: Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. Fined by FINRA

13 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $225,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that its system for supervising additions to existing variable annuities was not reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws and FINRA rules, including those governing suitability.

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Fined: Oriental Financial Services Corp. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Oriental Financial Services Corp. Fined by FINRA

13 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $20,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it included language conditioning the settlement of two arbitration proceedings on the customers’ agreements to consent to, and not to oppose, expungement of their claims from the CRD® system.

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Article: PMC Increases Goal to $60 Million with $1 Million Challenge from Patrick Byrne

Article - Media, Publications

PMC Increases Goal to $60 Million with $1 Million Challenge from Patrick Byrne

Pan-Mass Challenge, 13 May 2019

After 20 years away, Patrick Byrne returned to the Heavy Hitter stage Friday night and did what he does best: he raised the ante. At the close of his comments to 700 Heavy Hitters assembled at the InterContinental Boston, Byrne declared that if the PMC raises $60 million – $2 million more than the posted $58 million goal – he would kick in an additional $1 million! The crowd voted “yes” with their applause. Continue reading “Article: PMC Increases Goal to $60 Million with $1 Million Challenge from Patrick Byrne”

Fined: FIS Brokerage & Securities LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

FIS Brokerage & Securities LLC Fined by FINRA

7 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $25,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it submitted Reportable Order Events (ROEs) to the Order Audit Trail System (OATS™) that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or improperly formatted data. The findings stated that the firm used a platform for its OATS reporting that was provided by a third-party vendor. The OATS violations were caused by system errors that developed when the firm’s vendor made changes to its platform. The errors were later remediated.

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Article: Prescience Point Nominates Slate of Highly-Qualified Director Candidates for Election to MiMedx Board

Article - Media, Publications

Prescience Point Nominates Slate of Highly-Qualified Director Candidates for Election to MiMedx Board

PRNewswire, 07 May 2019

Prescience Point Capital Management, LLC, a private investment management firm, together with certain investment partnerships under its management (collectively, “Prescience Point”), today announced that it has nominated a slate of four world-class candidates for election to the MiMedx Group, Inc. (“MiMedx” or the “Company”) (Ticker: MDXG) Board of Directors (the “Board”) at the Company’s upcoming Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”), scheduled to be held on June 17, 2019. Prescience Point, together with its director nominees, owns approximately 9.98% of the common stock of MiMedx. Continue reading “Article: Prescience Point Nominates Slate of Highly-Qualified Director Candidates for Election to MiMedx Board”

Article: Silver Law Group Investigating Village Farms International, Inc. (VFF) For Potential Securities Laws Violations

Article - Media, Publications

Silver Law Group Investigating Village Farms International, Inc. (VFF) For Potential Securities Laws Violations

Silver Law Group, 07 May 2019

Village Farms International, Inc. (VFF), a publicly-traded vertically-integrated greenhouse grower of produce and cannabis, is being investigated by Silver Law Group concerning potential securities laws violations as well as violations by the selling stockbrokers. If you are an investor and have suffered a loss with this company, you may be able to recover some of your losses. Already publicly-traded in Canada, Village Farms started trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “VFF” in February, 2019.

On April 16, 2019, Citron Research released a report that stated that the SEC should investigate Village Farms. The report alleged that when Village Farms entered into a joint venture with Emerald Health Therapeutics and Pure Sunfarms to get into the cannabis market, it “moved to the dark side by partnering with shady stock promoters that have a track record of failed businesses and [joint ventures] while insiders at both Village Farms and Emerald Health have dumped stock.”
Continue reading “Article: Silver Law Group Investigating Village Farms International, Inc. (VFF) For Potential Securities Laws Violations”

Release: SHAREHOLDER ALERT Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of 3M Company – MMM

Release

SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of 3M Company – MMM

3 May 2019

On April 25, 2019, 3M reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2019, which fell significantly short of market expectations. 3M announced a $548 million charge in the quarter to resolve current and future litigation, reflecting a reserve of $235 million for “certain environmental matters and litigation” and an additional $313 million to address current and expected coal mine dust lawsuits in Kentucky and West Virginia. The Company also announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring due to a slower-than-expected 2019, and lowered its full-year earnings guidance to a range of $9.25 to $9.75 per share, compared to its prior outlook of $10.45 to $10.90 per share.

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Article: In Money Laundering Cover Up Federal Reserve Withholds 133 Pages About BB&T Releases 1 Page

Article - Media

In Money Laundering Cover Up Federal Reserve Withholds 133 Pages About BB&T Releases 1 Page

Matthew R. Lee

Inner City Press, 3 May 2019

When BB&T announced a $66 billion proposal to take over Suntrust Bank, which would close a still undisclosed number of branches and extend BB&T disparate lending patterns, many linked it to deregulatory moves in Washington. Then two days after Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard was asked by Inner City Press about the Fed’s lax review of previous mergers, including WSFS on which the Fed still hasn’t ruled on the bank’s withholding of information after rubber stamping the deal, the Fed announced public hearings. But the fix it seems it still in.

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Fined: Spencer Edwards, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Spencer Edwards, Inc. Fined by FINRA

2 May 2019

An OHO decision became final after the firm withdrew its appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council (NAC). The firm was suspended from association with FINRA in all capacities for 45 business days, censured, fined $495,000, ordered to offer rescission to customers, ordered to impose a six-month pre-use filing requirement for all of its communications with customers and required to retain an independent outside consultant to review and revise the firm’s supervisory procedures.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?