For its alleged part in a market-timing scheme, Van Eck Associates, which advises the Van Eck Funds, and two of its executives may be facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges, the company indicated in a filing. 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 Putnam Investments and Janus Capital, the announcement by Van Eck represents another step down in what seems to be a never-ending stairwell of charges. As Morningstar Director of Fund Analysis Kunal Kapoor put it, "It's been more widespread than most folks would have imagined."

The Securities and Exchange Commission hit Angelo Haligiannis and his Sterling Watters Group hedge fund with an emergency enforcement action for lying to investors about performance, complete with false documents, prospectuses and marketing materials. The fund's general partners, Sterling Watters Capital Advisors and Sterling Watters Capital Management, were also named as defendants.

Following the Mutual Fund Directors Forum's "best practices" could spell a bad reality for investors, a number of independent research firms argue in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Now, mutual funds don't have to feel quite so lonely. The Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have settled their first market-timing case against variable annuity issuers, with fines and disgorgement totaling $20 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reconsidering proposals to curb market timing and eliminate late trading because the measures may unfairly affect pension plan participants and other long-term shareholders, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Strategic five-year plans are a fact of life to corporate executives. But for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nation's top securities regulator, this year's newly released five-year plan spanning 2004 through 2009 took a lot of blood, sweat and tears and includes several lofty goals. These include stepping up examinations of investment companies deemed most at risk for problems, modernizing information technology systems, more aggressive hiring of both accountants and investment company examiners, and redesigning its pay, benefit and training programs for employees.

The former Evergreen Investments portfolio manager who was found to have engaged in allegedly improper trading of his own mutual fund shares likely was Prescott Crocker, former skipper of the Evergreen Precious Metals Fund and its High-Yield Bond fund, according to fund research firm Morningstar.

Piper Jaffray indicated in a recent filing with the SEC that the National Association of Securities Dealers has told the firm to expect disciplinary action for directed-brokerage arrangements it entered into with several fund firms. Directed-brokerage deals, prohibited by the NASD, involve fund firms sending trading business to brokerages as a form of compensation for the brokerage selling the funds. However, the practice has come into question because of a potential conflict of interest, whereby a broker may push unsuitable funds to investors so that it can reap the benefit of the trading commissions it receives. The firm contacted the NASD after the arrangements were uncovered during an internal review, and in response, the NASD said it "preliminarily has determined to recommend disciplinary action," according to the filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange last week fined Fidelity Brokerage Services $2 million for destroying or altering records in at least 21 of its 88 branch offices.

Janus Capital has had to withstand some face slapping from investors while it attempts to cure its ailing business, but it may soon run out of available cheek space as the hits keep coming.

Franklin Advisers wiped away some of the muck from the mutual fund trading scandal last week after agreeing to a $50 million settlement with regulators for its involvement in inappropriate trading of mutual fund shares.

Evergreen Funds confirmed that the SEC is investigating potential market timing at the firm and may bring an enforcement against it. The firm's parent company, Wachovia, first made the indication that a former employee as well as a portfolio manager may be charged in an SEC filing. An Evergreen spokeswoman indicated the firm intends to tell the SEC why enforcement action shouldn't be taken.

Following the Securities and Exchange Commission's new requirements regarding mutual fund boards and independent trustees, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum, at the request of SEC Chairman William Donaldson, has weighed in with its own set of 32 best practices. Donaldson made the request in November, just 2-1/2 months after the fund scandal broke, at a point when the SEC was finalizing a flurry of regulatory proposals to enhance board members' independence to stem further abusive activities.

The Ontario Securities Commission is planning to bring market-timing charges against a number of mutual fund companies in Canada within the next few weeks, it was reported last week. But the charges are likely to be focused on market-timing abuses, rather than illegal late trading.

A new bill proposed in the House would exempt up to $20,000 in annuity income from federal taxation. The Retirement Security for Life Act of 2004 proposes that 50% of annuity income, up to $20,000 annually, be free of taxes, amounting to savings up to $5,000 for someone in the 25% tax bracket.

The wait for details on the SEC's new fund independence rules is over, for last Tuesday, the Commission released its final regulations.

The days of cloak-and-dagger proxy ballots are over.

Citigroup has reportedly received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to dealings at its mutual fund arm, Smith Barney. Back in November, Citigroup admitted to regulators that an agreement to erect an internal transfer-agent wing was not disclosed to the company's own mutual funds. To correct the problem, it said it would pay $17 million back to the funds.

It's crunch time for mutual funds. With the Oct. 5 deadline for mutual funds to designate a chief compliance officer just two months away, fund executives are scrambling to get their policies and procedures in place. The question is are they ready?

The noise surrounding hedge fund registration grew to a thunderous clap last week, as Congress heard testimony from several industry professionals and government officials on the merits of such a groundbreaking move.