Former Trautman Broker Fined $250K for Timing, Late Trading

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has entered its final judgment against Scott A. Christian, a former broker for Trautman Wasserman, for his role in market timing and late trading. Without admitting or denying the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges, Christian consented to a $250,000 fine.   According to the SEC’s complaint, Christian enabled a number of the brokerage’s customers to late trade mutual funds by time stamping their orders before the market’s 4 p.m. close but submitted the orders as late as 6:30.   Forty fund companies sent more than 300 letters both to Christian and Trautman Wasserman asking them to stop the excessive trading. To circumvent their scrutiny, Christian then opened up multiple accounts for his customers and used various registered representative identification numbers.   A related case against six other principals of the firm is still pending. They are Gregory O. Trautman, Samuel M. Wasserman, James A. Wilson, Jr., Mark Barbera, Jerome Snyder and Forde H. Prigot.