I have written previously about the recurring problem of fraudulent financial information used to market and sell municipal securities. See my Sept. 22, 2020, Blog “SEC Focus on Municipal Securities: Disclosure and Enforcement – the Peculiar Structure of the Municipal Securities Disclosure Regime”; my March 2, 2021, Blog “Being Held Accountable: The ‘Education’ of KPMG at the College of New Rochelle”; and by April 28, 2022, Blog “Failing Grades: School District and Auditor Earn SEC Discipline.” » Read More
On Monday, May 25, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an Order Instituting Administrative and Cease-And-Desist Proceedings (“Order”) against RiverSource Distributors, Inc. (“RDI”) with respect to exchanges it made with existing customers between January 2017 and May 2018 of variable annuities.» Read More
In July 1993 two brothers, David and Tom Gardner, and a friend, Erik Rydholm, founded a private investment advisory firm in Alexandria, Virginia. They named that firm Motley Fool after the court jester in “As You Like It,” a play written by William Shakespeare (it is believed in 1599). » Read More
On Friday April 29, 2022, the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division decided cross appeals in Lamme v. Client Instant Access, LLC et al., 2022 WL 1276123, affirming so much of the trial court’s decision that rejected Ms. Lamme’s claim that other businesses owned by Mr.» Read More
On Jan. 25, 2019, the tailing dam of “upstream design” known as Dam 1 (the “Dam”) at the Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine six miles east of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, collapsed after suffering a catastrophic failure. That collapse released nearly 12 million cubic tons of mining waste into the Paraopeba River, caused the death of 270 people, resulted in “immeasurable environmental and social harm” (according to the April 28 Press Release of the U.S.» Read More
On Monday, April 18, 2022, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges against Fernando Passos, the former executive Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations of a Brazilian reinsurance company, IRB Brazil Resseguros S. A., for planting a story with the media claiming that Warren Buffett (the “Oracle of Omaha”)’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.» Read More
On Monday, April 18, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Rollins Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of termite and pest control services (under such brands as Orkin and Critter Control) to both residential and customers, had settled charges that it “engaged in improper accounting practices in order to boost its quarterly earnings per share… to meet research analysts’ consensus estimates.” » Read More
The Crosby Independent School District, located in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, about 35 miles north of downtown Houston, dates to the late 19th century. According to the Texas Education Agency, as of 2016 the District served 5,666 students in seven schools (including a high school). » Read More
“There is something perverse in the very nature of mankind,” as Lucretius wrote in his great didactic poem “De rerum natura” [On the Nature of Things] in the first century B.C.
And greed, again, and the blind lust of honours,
Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law…
So, the following three tales capture the weakness of the human soul, which would rather celebrate financial gain at the expense of reputation, money, and position. » Read More
On Thursday, March 3, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that City National Rochdale, LLC (“CNR”), a Delaware statutory trust sponsoring proprietary mutual funds and serving as their investment adviser, agreed to pay $30,361,803 to settle charges brought by the SEC that the trust had failed to disclose conflicts of interest that defrauded current and prospective clients.» Read More
