Criminal Law

Do You Need an Attorney?

Posted on November 11, 2008
Current market conditions are having a significant upheaval in the financial services industry, and many brokers are changing firms, or planning to start their own investment advisory firms. It is obviously a big step, and one that needs to be carefully planned and considered...

Whoever Wins, Chill A Bit

Posted on November 04, 2008
Great commentary from conservative blogger and University of Tennessee Professor Glenn Reynolds at Forbes.comYou don't have to love the "other guy." You don't have to hold back on fighting against policies you don't like. You don't have to pull punches...

Lehman Note Sales Under Fire

Posted on November 03, 2008
And they are out of the gate. Claimants' attorneys are preparing to file arbitrations against brokers and firms for sales of Lehman structured notes. The cases are being filed against Lehman brokers, and UBS since it appears that for some unknown reason, UBS brokers were selling Lehman notes...

Defense Lawyers See Bonanza From Lehman, Bear

Posted on October 28, 2008
Bloomberg is reporting what securities defense attorneys have experienced - the demand for defense counsel is on the rise. The article focuses on the criminal side of the equation, and the civil side - in regulatory investigations and arbitrations - is running right along with it...

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What's Going On At Ameritrade?

Posted on October 28, 2008
A caller to my office alerted me to this bit of news. First, we have been getting tons of calls about the online brokers (specifically E-Trade, Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse) and margin liquidations. Callers are complaining that their positions are being sold out for margin calls, without ever receiving a call or an opportunity to make a cash deposit...

Merrill's Retention Bonuses Come in Low

Posted on October 25, 2008
Looks like we will see a flood of Merril reps leaving. With competitors offering 200% of trailing 12 to change firms, how does BoA expect to keep assets...excuse me, representatives...at the firm? Sure, they are loyal to Mother Merrill, but this deal, a reported 1x trailing 12 for a top producer is going to be a problem...

Goldman to slash 10% of staff

Posted on October 24, 2008
Many were looking to Goldman Sachs as the model of financial industry stability in these troubling times. Well, it looks like all may not be so rosy on Broad Street after all - Goldman to slash 10% of staff: "The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is preparing to cut 10% of its work force, or 3,260 workers, according to a source people familiar with the matter...

Raymond James snags high-earning Merrill team

Posted on October 24, 2008
Raymond James snags high-earning Merrill team: "A veteran Michigan-based brokerage team at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. that produces $2.7 million in fees and commissions has bolted to Raymond James & Associates Inc., saying its clients are concerned about the financial stability of Merrill...

Regulators look for signs of manipulation near market close

Posted on October 24, 2008
Regulators look for signs of manipulation near market close - "U.S. securities regulators are trying to find out whether firms using the 'marking the close' technique are contributing to explosive volatility on stock markets near the close of trading...

Cox Strongly Supports Merger Between SEC and CFTC

Posted on October 24, 2008
Of course he does - with him as the head of the new entity, no doubt. After all, he did such a great job with the SEC. Cox 'strongly' supports merger between SEC, CFTC - "Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said a committee on regulatory reform of the financial-services industry should be established to explore a merger between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission...

Wall Street job losses could top 200,000

Posted on October 24, 2008
Wall Street Job Losses - Wall Street has already laid off 110,000 people in 2008 as a result of the financial crisis, and some experts see that number reaching 200,000 by the end of the year. Goldman Sachs Group said Thursday it would cut 3,200 jobs, or 10% of its work force...

The fault, dear Brutus, is in ourselves

Posted on October 22, 2008
An editorial at Investment News raises the point that "Wall Street Greed" is not the cause of the current financial crisis, although it is the current poster boy according to politicians.Of course, it is always easier to blame someone else, but this article points out that we, the guy in the street, are partly responsible for this crisis...

Firms Report More Losses

Posted on October 22, 2008
As expected, the brokerage firms continue to report losses:Raymond James Q4 Net Drops 22%Merrill Posts $5.2 Billion Loss, Fifth In A Row

Financial Rescues Can Set Off New Problems

Posted on October 20, 2008
An interesting analysis of the unintended consequences of the financial bailout from the Washington Post.Financial Rescues Can Set Off New Problems

New Issue for Federally Registered Advisers

Posted on October 17, 2008
With the markets down 40% or so in the last few months, federally registered investment advisers are facing a new issue - the potential loss of the ability to maintain their federal registration.Investment advisers with over $30 million in assets under management must register with the SEC...

The Financial Crisis: What Went Wrong?

Posted on October 01, 2008
I am just linking to this, because I am not a tax expert by any stretch of the imagination, and Profession Caron, from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, is one.Take a couple of minutes and read it. No spin, no blaiming Jimmy Carter or any other nonsense, just an analysis...

Bailout passes Senate

Posted on October 01, 2008
A revised version of the the $700 billion financial industry bailout passed in the Senate this evening, 74-25 and is apparently gaining ground in the House.The Senate added $110 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision to raise, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on federal deposit insurance, according to the AP...

Citigroup to buy Wachovia

Posted on September 29, 2008
Citigroup to buy Wachovia banking operationsThis might be the end of the crisis - Wachovia is gone.

Paulson Says Bailout's Exec Pay Provisions Will Be Addressed

Posted on September 24, 2008
Bailout: Accord on chiefs' pay, Bush on TV tonight: "Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he was agreeing to demands from critics in both parties to limit the pay packages of Wall Street executives whose companies would benefit from the proposed bailout...

Republicans and Democrats Angry Over Bailout

Posted on September 23, 2008
With Bernanke and Paulson speaking today, there is quite a bit of news out there about the bailout, and it seems pretty clear that some members of Congress are pretty angry with the proposal to allow the executive branch of government to use $700 billion to maybe, bolster the economy...

Paulson and Bernanke push bailout as Lehman assets sold

Posted on September 23, 2008
The Internet is full of commentary regarding the bailout. I am not an economist, and couldn't possibly comment on the correctness of the proposal (except for the constitutional issues noted earlier.Part of me wonders why a Republican Administration, who is, in theory, anti-regulation and anti-big government, is pushing this proposal, but a great question has been asked of Paulson and Bernanke, in Paulson and Bernanke push bailout as Lehman assets sold - Yahoo! News:You two gentlemen have been wrong about the housing crisis, missed the leverage problem, and understated the derivative issue,' said Barry Ritholtz, director of research at Fusion IQ, an investment firm in New York...

Mushroom Cloud over Wall Street as US Constitution Burns

Posted on September 23, 2008
Mushroom Cloud over Wall Street as US Constitution Burns:These are dark times. While you were sleeping the cockroaches were busy about their work, rummaging through the US Constitution, and putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over the nation's financial markets and the country's economic future...

Wall Street Bailouts

Posted on September 23, 2008
There is, of course, much talk about the past, pending and proposed "bailouts" of Wall Street and AIG, and I have consistently taken the position that these bailouts are not actually bailouts, they are in effect, guarantees by the government. Not one taxpayer dime has been spent in these "bailouts...

McCain says he would fire SEC head Christopher Cox

Posted on September 19, 2008
This is what we are going to get for President? McCain loses it, goes off message and threatens to fire one of the best heads of the SEC (at least from a Republican standpoint.McCain says he would fire SEC head Christopher Cox -- Newsday.com: "McCain says he would fire SEC head Christopher Cox"Check out google on this...

Is Morgan Stanley Next?

Posted on September 18, 2008
Morgan Stanley in talks as fear grips financials According to a report this morning from Reuters, Morgan Stanley is discussing a deal with Wachovia, and CNBC said HSBC Holdings and China's CITIC Group were also eyeing Wall Street's second-largest investment bank...

Money Market Fund Halts Sales

Posted on September 16, 2008
During the auction rate securities crisis, when investors were complaining that no one told them that the auctions could fail, or that their investment might be illiquid, I often commented that the reason no one told them that was that auctions hadn't failed in decades, and the possibility was remote...

Lehman Files for Bankruptcy

Posted on September 15, 2008
This is a historic day. Today, the fourth largest brokerage firm, one that has existed for over 150 years, has filed for bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers filed a bankruptcy petition this morning.It is a Chapter 11 liquidation, which means that assets will be sold, and parts of Lehman will remain as other firms purchase the assets, but Lehman is gone...

Bank of America to buy Merrill for $29 a share

Posted on September 14, 2008
While Lehman goes under, Bank of America buys Merrill Lynch.We are witnessing historic changes in our financial system, which will result in a call for more regulation.Bank of America to buy Merrill for $29 a share

Embattled UBS Restructures as rich clients flee - Yahoo! News

Posted on August 12, 2008
Embattled UBS restructures as rich clients flee Well, it's no surprise. When you lose 40 billion dollars in a single quarter, you are in trouble, and UBS is in trouble. Reuters, and CNBC, is reporting that the firm is undergoing a restructuring, with talk of spinning off its investment banking division.

UBS Uses Google Adwords to Announce Settlement

Posted on August 10, 2008
This is a first, at least for me. I was at SECLaw.com and noticed in the Google Advertisements an ad for the UBS ARS settlement. It wasn't an ad from an attorney, it had a reference to UBS.com.I thought someone was trying to spoof UBS' web site, or that it was someone trying to generate clicks from ARS holder by putting UBS' web site URL in the ad...

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