Van Eck May be Next SEC Target

August 17, 2004, 1:00 a.m. EDT 1 Min Read

For its alleged part in a market-timing scheme, Van Eck Associates, which advises the Van Eck Funds, may be facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges, the company indicated in an SEC filing.

Van Eck and two unnamed senior officers may become the next bulls-eye in the SECs attack on the technically legal but widely controversial practice of rapid, in-and-out trading, which abets those permitted to do it but harms long-term investors in funds, CBS MarketWatch reports.

The news is far from surprising, since the firm has a lot of international funds that trade in different time zones. As the latest in a long list of high-profile companies named in the scandal, including the since troubled Putnam and Janus, the announcement by Van Eck represents another step down in what seems to be a never-ending stairwell of charges.

"Its been more widespread than I think most folks would have imagined," said Morningstars director of fund analysis, Kunal Kapoor, in an interview with CBS MarketWatch.

Industry expert Geoff Bobroff said that while any settlement with the SEC would help Van Eck investors, the average fund investor will only see "pennies or a few dollars" tacked back onto their accounts.

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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.