Law and regulation

California-based investment advisor James Michael Murray allegedly defrauded investors using a bogus report from a fictitious auditing firm to embellish the performance of a hedge fund, according to the SEC.

Private company share trader SharesPost and its chief executive, Greg Brogger, have agreed to pay penalties, of $80,000 and $20,000 respectively, to settle charges that the firm facilitated securities transactions without registering with the SEC as a broker-dealer.

So you want to tap into the global markets and find new opportunities for growth? But before you do that, you need to get re-acquainted with the new IRS requirements for reporting the basis of the cost you ascribe to a security or fund you purchase.

Securities regulators charged two Ameriprise Financial advisors and three others with insider-trading, saying they made $1.8 million in illicit profits based on confidential merger information one of the advisors learned through an Alcoholics Anonymous relationship.

FINRA developed a more robust market surveillance and whistleblower group. And the regulator recently imposed rules that require firms to report violations.

Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO of the Investment Company Institute, said Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has “pre-judged” the results of the 2010 round of reforms to money market mutual funds.

Morgan Stanley said it has placed broker David S. Walker on leave, after prosecutors said a 44-year-old mother of four accused of running a brothel had visited the firm to discuss an online prostitution venture.

The proposed rule change might lower litigation and forum expenses, but it could also result in more claims and awards against reps and (eventually) RIAs.

Bankers are "bastardizing" the process of terms of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, by threatening to file lawsuits over whether costs and benefits of new rules have been adequately studied, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton.

SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro told a financial services subcommittee of the House of Representatives that the federal regulator intends to spend $100 million of its $1.6 billion requested budget for fiscal 2013 on information systems and another $50 million on modernizing the EDGAR stock information database and www.sec.gov, its public website.

The advisor allegedly used client money to buy a $3.35 million beach resort being developed by a relative.

The new process will be partially electronic, the proposal suggests, to eliminate current deficiencies and delays.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to issue for public comment a proposed auditing standard on related-party transactions, and to amend standards on significant unusual transactions and auditors of broker-dealers.

An arbitration panel shot down a claimant’s request for up to $2.9 million for allegedly botched investments tied to private placements and Ponzi schemes last week, and instead ordered her to pay almost $136,000 in costs and expert witness fees.

Here’s an interactive slide show detailing the best investment ideas for this election year from seven financial advisors practicing throughout the country.

Our legal expert discusses a new calculation by the SEC.

U.S. officials see Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act as a significant undertaking for financial institutions.

Former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney financial advisor Victor Manuel Rivera Jr. pled guilty in a New Jersey federal court to stealing more than $90,000 from the accounts of his clients.

The SEC filed a complaint this month accusing Brenda Eschbach of misappropriating over $3 million of her clients’ funds.

Regulators are stepping up their efforts to safeguard investors and their money from unscrupulous financial advisors. Here’s an interactive slide show detailing five advisors who have already found themselves in the SEC’s crosshairs this year.