Ex-Putnam CEO Lasser Settles With SEC for $75K

Lawrence Lasser, the former chief executive officer of Putnam Investments, agreed to pay $75,000 to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission he authorized the company to make shelf-space payments to 80 brokerage firms from 2000 to 2003 without revealing this to the board of directors. Twenty of these brokers were paid in cash, the remaining via directed brokerage agreements.

Putnam paid $40 million to the SEC in 2005 for the practice. Lasser is the first individual to be charged in such a case, said Daniel Hawke, head of the SEC's Philadelphia office.

"We are holding him accountable for his conduct," Hawke said.

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