Author: Contributor

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.

05/02/201905/13/2020

Fined: Midtown Partners & Co., LLC Fined by FINRA

Midtown Partners & Co., LLC Fined by FINRA

2 May 2019

A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $50,000 and required to certify to FINRA that it has established and implemented policies, procedures and internal controls reasonably designed to address and remediate the issues identified in the AWC.

05/02/201905/13/2020

Fined: Spencer Edwards, Inc. Fined by FINRA

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.

04/29/201905/20/2020

Article: Part 5 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation: Traditional Shorting Compared to Naked Shorting (Both Legal and Illegal)

Part 5 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation: Traditional Shorting Compared to Naked Shorting (Both Legal and Illegal)

Larry Smith

Smith On Stocks, 29 April 2019

This is the fifth blog in the series that I am writing to describe how illegal naked shorting is used broadly and massively to manipulate the stock prices of (primarily small) companies. I have been studying illegal naked shorting for nearly five years and I have found it to be incredibly complex and disturbingly it is widely practiced on Wall Street. My earlier blogs were intended to build a foundation needed to understand future blogs.

04/17/201905/20/2020

Article: Part 4 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation: Who are the Key Players?

Article: Part 4 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation: Who are the Key Players?

Larry Smith

Smith On Stocks, 17 April 2019

I worked on Wall Street as an analyst for nearly 40 years and was involved in the stock market on a day to day basis. Throughout this time, I was focused on fundamental developments that would give an insight into the potential for a company to grow its sales and profits and then trying to translate that into future stock performance. Like many investors, I believed that this was the overarching factor in predicting future stock performance. I had no inkling and I would have been shocked if someone had told me ten years ago what the experience of the past decade has taught, i.e., in many, many cases (particularly for small companies) fundamentals are not the most important factor determining the stock price.

04/11/201905/20/2020

Article: Part 3 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation – Prime Brokers and the DTCC Have a Troubling Monopoly on Clearing and Settling Stock Trades

Part 3 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation – Prime Brokers and the DTCC Have a Troubling Monopoly on Clearing and Settling Stock Trades

Larry Smith

Smith On Stocks, 11 April 2019

I am not going to attempt to show in any detail how the clearing, settlement and depositing of securities system evolved from the crisis of the mid-60s to what is now a totally paperless, electronic system. But briefly, Congress passed legislation in 1971 for two new service organizations, whose objectives were the speeding up the clearance and settlement process. The Depository Trust Company (DTC) was established as the nation’s principal securities depository, with the mission to convert paper certificates to electronic book entries and to immobilize the paper certificates and keep them in a vault at the DTC. (No more shuttling by messengers.) The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) was established at the same time to speed up clearance and settlement services.

04/06/201905/18/2020

Article: Lyft is threatening litigation against Morgan Stanley, accusing the firm of supporting short-selling

Lyft is threatening litigation against Morgan Stanley, accusing the firm of supporting short-selling

Deirdre Bosa, Leslie Picker

CNBC, 6 April 2019

Lyft has threatened litigation against Morgan Stanley, accusing the firm of supporting short-selling for investors who are subject to lock-up agreements.

In a letter sent to Morgan Stanley on April 2, Lyft questioned the firm about its alleged role in helping market certain products that would help pre-IPO investors bet against the stock.

04/04/201905/20/2020

Article: Part 2 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation- Conventional Wisdom on How Short Sales are Executed

Part 2 in Series on Illegal Naked Shorting’s Role in Stock Manipulation- Conventional Wisdom on How Short Sales are Executed

Larry Smith

Smith On Stocks, 4 April 2019

The current conventional wisdom on how a short sale is transacted is that a short seller borrows stock from a specific investor who is long the stock, then at some later point buys back the stock in the open market. They then return the stock to that “same specific investor” from whom it was borrowed. Before I met ShareIntel, this is what I thought happened, but as I began to work with them and to do more research on my own, I was jolted when I realized that this is not what goes on in the real world of Wall Street and in later reports I will address how the actual process facilitates widespread naked shorting that enables stock manipulation by some hedge funds..

03/27/201905/20/2020

Article: Part 1 in a Series of Reports on Blatant, Widespread Stock Manipulation that is Enabled by Illegal, Naked Shorting

Part 1 in a Series of Reports on Blatant, Widespread Stock Manipulation that is Enabled by Illegal, Naked Shorting

Larry Smith

Smith On Stocks, 27 March 2019

I am convinced that price manipulation by Wall Street bad actors is endemic in the capital markets and swindles legitimate investors out of billions of dollars each year. This criminal enterprise is particularly directed against the stocks of emerging growth companies that are at the cutting edge of technological innovation and jobs creation and are so critical to solving humanity’s greatest challenges. Because my research deals with biotechnology, I am most aware of innumerable, vicious attacks on biotechnology companies, but the scheme is perpetrated on all types of companies, primarily small but also large.

03/26/201905/13/2020

Fined: Stonecrest Capital Markets, Inc. fka Redwine & Company, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Stonecrest Capital Markets, Inc. fka Redwine & Company, Inc. Fined by FINRA

26 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $15,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to report transactions in Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine® (TRACE®)-eligible fixed income securities. The findings stated that the firm failed to accurately record the terms and conditions of customer orders on its books and records. The firm failed to mark order tickets for securities transactions as either solicited or unsolicited. Instead, the section of the order ticket where that information was supposed to be noted was marked N/A.

03/22/201905/13/2020

Fined: McDonald Partners LLC Fined by FINRA

McDonald Partners LLC Fined by FINRA

22 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $22,500. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to report certain municipal securities transactions to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s (MSRB) real-time transaction reporting system. The findings stated that the firm failed to report both the purchases into its riskless principal account and the sales to its investment adviser clients of certain riskless principal transactions.

03/21/201905/13/2020

Fined: Arbor Research & Trading, LLC Fined by FINRA

Arbor Research & Trading, LLC Fined by FINRA

21 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $25,000 and required to enhance its supervisory system, including its WSPs, to ensure it establishes, documents and maintains a system of risk management controls and supervisory procedures reasonably designed to manage the financial, regulatory and other risks of its business activity related to market access.

Pawar Law Group Announces A Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against 22nd Century Group, Inc. – XXII

03/20/201905/06/2020

Release: Pawar Law Group Announces A Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against 22nd Century Group, Inc. – XXII

Release

20 March 2019

Pawar Law Group announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased shares of 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE:XXII) from February 18, 2016 through October 25, 2018, inclusive (the “Class Period”). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for 22nd Century Group investors under the federal securities laws. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than March 22, 2019.

Read full release.

03/19/201905/13/2020

Fined: Corinthian Partners, L.L.C. Fined by FINRA

Corinthian Partners, L.L.C. Fined by FINRA

18 March 2019

A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $30,000 and required to submit a written certification to FINRA that its policies, systems and procedures (including written procedures) and training, in connection with non-traditional exchange traded products (non-traditional ETPs), are reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA Rule 2111(a) relating to suitability.