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Article: Counter-Strike trading found to be ‘nearly all’ money laundering

Article - Media, Publications

Counter-Strike trading found to be ‘nearly all’ money laundering

Alex Hern,  30 October 2019

The gaming firm Valve has halted trading of some in-game items in its popular multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after discovering that “nearly all” of the trading was part of a money-laundering scheme run by “worldwide fraud networks”.

In CS:GO, players can earn containers with cosmetic items, which can be unlocked using keys bought either in-game or for real money from other players.

Valve said it had closed the market between players, and in patch notes for the latest version of CS:GO – first reported by Motherboard – it gave its reasons. Continue reading “Article: Counter-Strike trading found to be ‘nearly all’ money laundering”

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Article: H.C. Wainwright Starts Ekso Bionics (EKSO) at Buy

Article - Media

H.C. Wainwright Starts Ekso Bionics (EKSO) at Buy

StreetInsider.com, 28 October 2019

H.C. Wainwright analyst Swayampakula Ramakanth initiates coverage on Ekso Bionics (NASDAQ: EKSO) with a Buy rating and a price target of $1.20.

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Comment: This appears to be a stellar example of a life-saving vital technology company being destroyed by collusion between a placement agent and naked short sellers.

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Article: Racketeering Law Makes Its Return to Wall Street

Article - Media

Racketeering Law Makes Its Return to Wall Street

Peter J. Henning

The New York Times 24 October 2019

Prosecutors have not brought a case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, against Wall Street traders since the investment firm Princeton Newport Partners was indicted in the mid-1980s. The RICO charges filed recently against three traders at JPMorgan Chase indicate that prosecutors may be resurrecting the law to target white-collar defendants.

Prosecutors accused Michael Nowak, who was the head of precious metals trading at the bank, along with Gregg Smith and Christopher Jordan, of organizing the precious metals desk as a RICO enterprise to engage in “spoofing,” as well as wire and bank fraud in which JPMorgan and its customers were the victims

“Spoofing,” which was made a crime by the Dodd-Frank Act, happens when traders are “bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution.”

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Article: Short sellers slammed as Tesla shares surge the most in 6 years

Article - Media

Short sellers slammed as Tesla shares surge the most in 6 years

Kevin Dugan

New York Post, 24 October 2019

Tesla shares are surging — and short sellers are hurting.

Wall Street investors betting against Tesla’s stock got clobbered to the tune of nearly $1.5 billion on Thursday after Elon Musk’s electric-car maker reported a surprise profit, giving the company’s shares their biggest boost in six years.

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Article: Pan-Mass Challenge Raises Record $63 Million for Dana-Farber

Article - Media, Publications

Pan-Mass Challenge Raises Record $63 Million for Dana-Farber

Candid, 23 October 2019

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has announced a record $63 million gift from the Pan-Mass Challenge, an annual two-day cycling event that raises funds for adult and pediatric cancer research and patient care at Dana-Farber Continue reading “Article: Pan-Mass Challenge Raises Record $63 Million for Dana-Farber”

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Article: H.C. Wainwright & Co. Is Once Again Ranked #1 by PlacementTracker

Article - Media

H.C. Wainwright & Co. Is Once Again Ranked #1 by PlacementTracker

BusinessWire, 22 October 2019

H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, announced its #1 Ranking by transaction volume during the third quarter of 2019, maintaining the Firm’s top position for 18 consecutive quarters, in PlacementTracker’s Market League Tables.

In addition to being the #1 Investment Bank for CMPO, RD and PIPE transactions, H.C. Wainwright executed 150 transactions in the first three quarters of 2019 totaling $5.5 Billion in transaction value. The H.C. Wainwright team has been the #1 ranked underwriter/placement agent by deal volume cumulatively since 1998.

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Comment: This company is alleged to be one of the top front-runners helping naked short sellers destroy promising companies.

Learn more: HCWainwright @ NSS

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Article: Pan-Mass Challenge Sets Record for Donations

Article - Media, Publications

Pan-Mass Challenge Sets Record for Donations

NewsCenter, 22 October 2019

The Pan-Mass Challenge announced their largest financial gift ever given to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The record breaking $63 million check exceeds this year’s $60 million goal and brings the PMC’s 40 year fundraising total to $717 million.

The 40th Annual Pan-Mass Challenge bike-a-thon was held in early August, with the route going through Cape Cod all the way to Provincetown.

The PMC is the nation’s most successful single-event athletic fundraiser and donates 100 percent of every rider raised dollar to Dana-Farber, a world leader in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research. Continue reading “Article: Pan-Mass Challenge Sets Record for Donations”

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Article: Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Must Face Spoofing Case, Judge Says

Article - Media

Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Must Face Spoofing Case, Judge Says

Janan Hanna

Bloomberg, 21 October 2019

The criminal case against two former Deutsche Bank AG employees accused of fraudulent and manipulative precious-metals trading can proceed, after a federal judge on Monday rejected their request for dismissal.

U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp in Chicago said prosecutors had properly used the wire-fraud statute to charge James Vorley and Cedric Chanu with spoofing, part of an alleged multiyear scheme to defraud other traders on the Commodity Exchange Inc., a venue run by CME Group Inc.’s Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

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Fined: World Equity Group, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

World Equity Group, Inc. Fined by FINRA

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $18,500. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to report to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE®) transactions in TRACE-eligible corporate debt securities within the time required. The findings stated that the firm’s late reporting resulted from delays caused by firm employees and untimely amendments or corrections made to TRACE reports previously submitted by the firm or its clearing firm.

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Fined: Wallachbeth Capital LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

Wallachbeth Capital LLC Fined by FINRA

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $60,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish, maintain and enforce written policies and procedures that were reasonably designed to prevent trade-throughs of protected quotations that did not fall within an exception, in violation of Rule 611(a) of Regulation NMS (Reg NMS) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

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Fined: RBC Capital Markets, LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

RBC Capital Markets, LLC Fined by FINRA

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $2,900,000 and required to provide a written certification to FINRA that it has established and implemented a supervisory system and written procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA rules and the federal securities laws applicable to prospectus delivery. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and maintain a reasonable supervisory system governing the delivery of prospectuses for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchangetraded notes (ETNs) and mutual funds and failed to enforce its WSPs.

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Fined: Insight Securities, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Insight Securities, Inc. Fined by FINRA

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $30,000. No restitution is provided for in the AWC as the firm already paid restitution to the affected customers. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that its pricing of corporate bond transactions traded for its own account failed to be fair taking into consideration all relevant circumstances, including market conditions with respect to each bond at the time of the transaction, the expense involved, and the fact that the firm was entitled to a profit.

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Article: Fincrime Briefing: UBS pays to settle laundering probe, U.S., South Korea take down largest crypto-fueled child exploitation site, DOJ guidance on fines when you can’t pay, and more

Article - Media, Publications

Fincrime Briefing: UBS pays to settle laundering probe, U.S., South Korea take down largest crypto-fueled child exploitation site, DOJ guidance on fines when you can’t pay, and more

Brian Monroe, 17 October 2019

UBS pays $11 million to settle Italian money laundering probe, tied to tax fracas An Italian judge has accepted a request by UBS to pay more than 10 million euros ($11 million) to settle a money-laundering investigation, ending one of the Swiss bank’s biggest legal headaches in Europe, just the latest in a series of international probes and settlements tied to financial crime and compliance failures.

UBS has been grappling with two separate probes in Italy and a court case in France over allegations it enabled cross-border tax cheats to hide assets in Switzerland.

The judge on Thursday accepted the payment of 2.125 million euros as “agreed penalty” to close the case while also seizing 8.175 million euros as profit from the alleged money-laundering, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The settlement, which by Italian law is not an admission of guilt, was requested by UBS in July, after a deal with Italian prosecutors. Last June, the Swiss bank paid 101 million euros to settle its other Italian case, a related financial investigation, with tax authorities. Continue reading “Article: Fincrime Briefing: UBS pays to settle laundering probe, U.S., South Korea take down largest crypto-fueled child exploitation site, DOJ guidance on fines when you can’t pay, and more”