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Strategies & Market Trends : Banned.......Replies to the A@P thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: ravenseye who wrote (3481)4/12/2005 12:13:20 PM
From: Buckey  Respond to of 5425
 
fry the crooks



To: ravenseye who wrote (3481)4/12/2005 12:42:10 PM
From: StockDung  Respond to of 5425
 
In other instances, several of the specialists punctuated their improper trading with statements
such as “f—k the DOTs” and “screw the DOTs” as they were in fact disadvantaging
agency orders.



To: ravenseye who wrote (3481)4/12/2005 12:53:17 PM
From: Tommy Hicks  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 5425
 
Hi Raven,

Let's cut to the chase a bit. You've intimated in your posts that you think the Truthseeker was involved in crimes committed by Anthony Elgindy. I don't think this is true, but please post definitively that this is what you believe to be true.

th



To: ravenseye who wrote (3481)4/12/2005 1:09:19 PM
From: StockDung  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 5425
 
NYSE Specialists Indicted for Fraud, Improper Trading (Update6)
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government charged 15 New York Stock Exchange specialists with fraud in the biggest crackdown on illegal trading at the Big Board, alleging they manipulated orders for four years to profit at clients' expense.

The NYSE itself was censured for self-regulatory failures and will submit to outside monitoring for the first time in its 213-year history as part of a $20 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. The SEC accused 20 specialists, including two former top officials at Spear Leeds & Kellogg, of filling orders for their own accounts instead of executing the trades for customers.

``To see criminal activity on the floor is really astounding,'' said Jacob Zamansky, a New York lawyer who represents investors in arbitrations against brokers. ``This occurred under the watch of the NYSE. It raises questions about whether the NYSE can properly supervise the people there.''

The allegations stem from a two-year probe of specialists, the market makers who match buy and sell orders on the exchange floor and trade for their own accounts. U.S. Attorney David Kelley said the abuses occurred from 1999 through April 2003, during the tenure of former Chairman Richard Grasso. The NYSE initiated the investigation.

The indicted specialists are current and former employees of LaBranche & Co., Van der Moolen NV, Bear Wagner Specialists, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Spear Leeds & Kellogg unit and Banc of America Specialist, five of the NYSE's seven specialist firms.

SEC Suit

Todd Christie, 40, former head of Spear Leeds, and Robert Luckow, 57, the firm's former co-CEO, were among those sued by the SEC. The agency is seeking civil penalties including fines, forfeiture of ill-gotten profits, and bans against working in the brokerage industry.

Kelley said profits from the illegal trading were as high as $4.4 million. If convicted, the specialists face a maximum of 20 years in jail on each count of securities fraud and fines of $1 million to $5 million.

``These defendants broke the rules repeatedly,'' Kelley said at a press conference.

Former Van der Moolen Senior Managing Partners Joseph Bongiorno and Patrick McGagh Jr., Frank Delaney and Kevin Fee, both managing directors at Bear Wagner, and LaBranche's Freddy DeBoer are among the specialists indicted.

The two remaining NYSE specialist firms, both of which aren't mentioned by name in the indictments, are SIG Specialists Inc. and Performance Specialist Group. The exchange first said in April 2003 that it was investigating its seven specialists to determine whether they illegally traded stocks ahead of their clients.

Previous Settlement

All seven specialist firms last year agreed to pay $247 million to settle allegations that they profited on trades at the expense of their customers. Kelley, the SEC and the NYSE have been investigating individuals in connection with the violations.

In a statement, Kelley said the indicted specialists violated federal securities law ``through patterns of fraudulent and improper trading over approximately four years.''

The U.S. Department of Justice first targeted illegal trading on the NYSE in 1998, when it charged eight floor brokers and two executives of Oakford Corp.


To contact the reporter on this story:
Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Erik Schatzker at eschatzker@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 12, 2005 12:29 EDT