<<Under a New York state law, known as the Martin Act, the state attorney general's office has far-reaching powers to charge Wall Street players with either criminal or civil securities fraud. And in recent years, the state attorney general increasingly has used the Martin Act to crack down on securities-related improprieties.
In October, for instance, a New York state-court jury returned guilty verdicts against two former brokers from now-defunct Duke & Co., convicting them of multiple counts of securities fraud and scheming to defraud under the Martin Act.
"People have gone to jail under the Martin Act, and the courts have upheld the cases when it's been used," said John Coffee, a visiting professor of securities law at Harvard University. "It's got broad antifraud authority. The question is whether Blodget's activity amounted to fraud, which is hard to show unless you have objective evidence of under-the-table payments.">>>>> This investigation as stated it has gatherd enough evidence to charge members of Merril under the Martin Act, and that they intend, on basis of the evidence in the Merrill case to also widening their investigation to other firms.
This won't hit the media for sometime yet, but it , evidently, being pursued with vigor, and with the simple application of Martin Act you will see people going to jail,imo.Max p.s. if you read the PDF document you will see this investigation has gone FAR BEYOND Blodgett, and one gets the distinct impression they will be merely using Blodgett and others to get at BIGGER fish. |
