Silicon Valley Executive Settles Insider Trading Charges
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a Silicon Valley executive has agreed to pay more than a half-million dollars to settle charges that he traded on inside information received from a board member at a Minnesota-based company that was trying to solicit a competing bid in advance of a merger. The SEC alleges that Peter D. Nunan was contacted by the board member at FSI International and confidentially informed that a Japan-based semiconductor equipment company called Tokyo Electron Ltd. was negotiating to acquire FSI. The board member knew that Nunan, a senior engineering executive at a subsidiary of…
Read MoreSEC: Accounting Firm, Partner Conducted Deficient Surprise Exams
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that an accounting firm and one of its partners who conducted surprise examinations of client assets at an investment adviser have agreed to settle charges that they performed inadequately as the adviser’s president secretly stole money from accounts belonging to professional athletes. The SEC’s order finds that Santos, Postal & Co. P.C. and Joseph A. Scolaro conducted deficient surprise custody examinations of SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises and did not adequately consider fraud risk factors. They twice filed paperwork with the SEC that contained untrue statements. In one instance they stated that they…
Read MoreSEC Seeks Public Comment on Plan to Create A Consolidated Audit Trail
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to publish for public comment a proposed national market system (NMS) plan to create a single, comprehensive database that would enable regulators to efficiently track all trading activity in the U.S. equity and options market. The plan for the database, known as the consolidated audit trail (CAT), was submitted jointly by the self-regulatory organizations (SROs) as required by Rule 613 of Regulation NMS. “The Commission’s action to approve the proposed CAT plan for public comment is a major market structure milestone. CAT will enable regulators to harness today’s technology to enhance the regulation…
Read MoreSEC Announces Agenda for April 26 Meeting of the Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the agenda for its Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee meeting on April 26. The Commission established the advisory committee to provide a formal mechanism through which the Commission can receive advice and recommendations on equity market structure issues. The meeting will focus on recommendations related to a potential access fee pilot and trading venues regulation, as well as updates from the subcommittees. These documents are available on the SEC’s website. The meeting will be held at the SEC’s headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C., and is open…
Read MoreSEC Issues Order Modifying and Extending the Pilot Period for the National Market System Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility
The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued an order to extend for one year the pilot period of the National Market System Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility, commonly known as the limit up-limit down (LULD) plan. The Commission also approved a modification to the manner in which the LULD plan establishes the reference price in cases where a security does not trade in the opening auction on the primary listing exchange. In these circumstances, a security’s reference price will now be the previous trading day’s closing price or, if no closing price exists, the last reported sale on…
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