NASD..THE BOYS CLUB ....DISCIPLINES WITHOUT AUTHORITY,,, I already posted this happened this weekend ,,, and lo and behold here is the story that confirms what I have been saying all alone...The National Association of cant SEE D_ _ K, are a bunch of losers...It is a private Comapny that tries to poass itself off as a Govt Agency.
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NASD May Have Disciplined Brokers
Without Authority to Do So, Court
Says
By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A federal appeals-court decision has raised the
possibility that the National Association of
Securities Dealers may for years have disciplined
brokers in certain cases without the authority to do
so.
The decision last week by a three-judge federal
appeals-court panel in New York overturned an
NASD disciplinary action against brokerage-firm
owner John Fiero. In 1996, Mr. Fiero was censured,
fined $20,000 and threatened with suspension for
failing to comply fully with interview requests in an
NASD investigation into his stock-trading
activities, according to a copy of the court decision.
In its ruling, the appeals-court panel found the
NASD's market-surveillance committee didn't have
the power to compel Mr. Fiero to talk and,
therefore, couldn't punish him for failing to do so.
The committee was created in 1983. But it wasn't
until August 1996 -- several months after the Fiero
dispute began -- that the committee was explicitly
granted powers by the Securities and Exchange
Commission to compel members to cooperate in
investigations, the court found.
The SEC oversees NASD activities, and its 1996
decision was part of a larger agency
pronouncement regarding NASD powers. Private
securities attorneys say it was unnoticed until the
Fiero case when the issue was raised by the judges
during oral arguments.
Alden Adkins, general counsel for the NASD's
regulation unit, said the impact of the court
decision "will be minuscule." He said he believes
the court's ruling would affect only pre-August
1996 cases that are still open and he doesn't know
of any such cases.
But others say the ruling could have important
repercussions. Martin Kaplan, Mr. Fiero's lawyer,
predicted it could lead to the reopening of
"numerous cases" and said he plans to review other
clients' cases to see if they might be affected.
Anthony W. Djinis, a Washington attorney, said the
court decision "has some far-reaching
implications." He added he already has been called
by a former client asking whether his NASD
disciplinary action could be reopened in light of
the ruling.
NASD records for the first eight months of 1996
show several dozen cases where failing to respond
to information requests was cited as at least part
of the reason for barring or otherwise punishing a
broker. NASD officials said they couldn't
immediately say how many of its past disciplinary
cases involved the market-surveillance committee.
Other parts of the NASD prior to 1996 did have the
power to compel members to cooperate in
investigations.
Whatever the repercussions of the case, some
attorneys believe the court decision is a rebuke to
the NASD and the SEC, which approved the
penalties against Mr. Fiero and which was the
named party in the broker's appeals-court case.
The decision "is important in that it says to the
securities regulators that they must obey the law
just like everybody else," said Lawrence Iason,
former head of the SEC's New York office and now
a private attorney doing securities-defense work.
An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the
court ruling.
Last year, the NASD's regulatory unit filed a
disciplinary complaint against Mr. Fiero and his
firm, Fiero Brothers Inc., and several others. The
still-pending complaint contends the defendants
"acting in collusion, engaged in a manipulative
'bear raid' to drive down the price" of 10 stocks
traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Mr. Fiero and
his firm have denied wrongdoing.
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