Geek Securities Charged With Late Trading, Timing

The SEC has charged Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geek Securities with civil securities fraud for both market timing and late trading in mutual funds. Also named in the suit was a subsidiary, Geek Advisors, Inc., President Kautilya (Tony) Sharma and broker Neil R. Wadhwa. The charges say they allowed at least nine institutional investors, including a number of hedge funds, to market time and late trade more than 100 mutual funds between September 2001 and November 2003. When some mutual funds caught on to their practices and disallowed them to trade in the funds, the defendants tried to hide their and their clients' identities to continue trading, the SEC said. The SEC is seeking relief, disgorgement and monetary penalties from Geek for its actions.