Alliance Capital Trading Comes Under Scrutiny

Alliance Capital Management is among about 20 companies under investigation by the New York Stock Exchange for improperly identifying short-sale stock transactions, the asset manager said in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to an Aug. 5 report from the Associated Press, the company's institutional trading and research unit, Sanford C. Bernstein, received a Wells notice from the NYSE. A Wells notice is typically a precursor to a civil suit from the Big Board.

Short sales are a chief concern among regulators, because they could be used to artificially drive down a stock price, the AP report notes. Alliance Capital said it traced the error to a technical snafu that was fixed two years ago.

Alliance Capital also reported that the Bernstein unit received a separate Wells notice form the NASD, because one of its trading analysts allegedly sold shares in companies they had announced a suspension of coverage upon.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.