The SEC has charged Beaufort, South Carolina Mayor William J. Rauch with insider trading.  According to the Commission: (more…)

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, when the SEC sued her employer - the Joshua Tree Group - the company’s book keeper followed instructions from the company’s founder, Neulan Midkiff, to remove records and computers from the office.  The book keeper lied to a federal grand jury about it, but is now telling her story to a federal jury assembled to consider Neulan’s liability.  More than 500 Minnesotans lost approximately $30 million in the scheme. (more…)

Len Wells of the Evansville Courier & Press reports that  Carl E. Royse of Fairfield, Ill., and his daughter, Jeanette Riley of Olney, Illinois have pleaded guilty to scamming investors out of approximately $4 million in connection with a scam structured around bogus oil wells.  Wells reports: (more…)

Scamsters have an affinity for fast cars.  The SEC has found another one, charging investment adviser Robert C. Brown, Jr., of Hillsborough, California, with helping himself to more than $20 million of his clients’ money after promising them risk-free returns through option trading.  Among the things Brown bought with the money was the by-now-cliché Ferrari, as well as limousine services, and shopping trips (probably not at Wal Mart). 

According to the SEC: (more…)

According to the Wall Street Journal, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sued UBS, claiming that the Zurich-based banking giant misrepresented “to clients the risks of auction-rate securities before the $330 billion auction-rate market seized up earlier this year.” (more…)

Is there anything more in the public consciousness than the price of gas?  Scam artists know that and are busy crafting bogus companies to take advantage of the public’s demand that America find an alternative to foreign oil.  The SEC claims that it has caught one such company, charging U. S. Sustainable Energy Corp. (USSE) and John H. Rivera (Rivera), with issuing false press releases regarding USSE’s supposed ability to make fuel from soy beans.   According to the SEC: (more…)

The SEC has shut down an unusual alleged scheme in Ohio.  According the SEC,  Michael Spillan, his wife Melissa Spillan, and their companies, One Equity Corporation, Triangle Equities Group, Inc., Victory Management Group, Inc. and Dafcan Finance, Inc.  held themselves out as lenders who would take publicly traded stock as security for the loans.  (more…)

Read the SEC’s press release about a Nevada pump and dump scheme.  The SEC shut the scheme down, but likely not before it cost several baby boomers a good portion of their life savings.  (more…)

The SEC has once again halted an ongoing Ponzi scheme.  Last week, the SEC obtained a preliminary injunction against Watermark Financial Services Group, Inc. (”Watermark Financial”), Watermark M-One Holdings, Inc. (”Watermark Holdings”), M-One Financial Services, LLC (”M-One”), Watermark Capital Group, LLC (”Watermark Capital”), Guy W. Gane, Jr., and Lorenzo Altadonna.  The Commission’s complaint alleges, in part: (more…)

Mara Der Hovanesian has written a story that all baby boomers should read.  In this week’s BusinessWeek, Hovanesian covers the story that Investor’s Watchblog has been following since our launch and that too few reporters cover.  There is a tidal wave of investment fraud breaking over American baby boomers.  Their nest eggs are disappearing not only into the hands of con artists, but also into the hands of overeager and commission-hungry stockbrokers at America’s largest and best known brokerage houses.  (more…)