In addition to prosecutions and civil actions in the financial sector, former Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer pursued cases in both state and federal courts involving pollution, entertainment, technology, occupational safety and health and other fields in which New York plays a part in setting and maintaining national standards of conduct.
Payola, in the music industry, is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under U.S. law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to play on the air as sponsored airtime. The number of times the songs are played can influence the perceived popularity of a song, and payola may be used to influence these meters. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) treats payola as a violation of the Sponsorship Identification Rules, which requires any broadcast of paid material to include a disclosure.
The 2003 mutual fund scandal was the result of the discovery of illegal late trading and market timing practices on the part of certain hedge fund and mutual fund companies.
Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agents are licensed by the state to negotiate sales agreements and manage the documentation required for closing real estate transactions. Buyers and sellers are generally advised to consult a licensed real estate professional for a written definition of an individual state's laws of agency.
The term soft dollars refers to a Wall Street practice, especially in the asset management and securities industries, and means the benefits provided to an asset manager by a broker-dealer as a result of commissions generated from a financial transaction executed by the broker-dealer for client accounts or funds managed by the asset manager. In a soft dollar arrangement, the investment manager directs commissions generated by a client's or fund's transactions to a broker-dealer or other trading venue. Soft dollars, in contrast to hard dollars which have to be reported, are incorporated into brokerage fees and paid expenses, which may not be reported separately. Most investment managers follow the limitations detailed in Section 28(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In particular, if soft dollar arrangements are entered into with respect to registered investment companies and pension plans, compliance with Section 28(e) is generally required. However, hedge funds, which are generally not registered, may not be subject to the limitations of Section 28(e) and, thus, in some cases, the fund's commissions may be used for the adviser's benefit. In situations where fund commissions are used outside of the Section 28(e) safe harbor, full and comprehensive disclosure must be provided to fund investors.
Chubb Limited is an American-Swiss company incorporated in Zürich, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is a component of the S&P 500. Chubb is a global provider of insurance products covering property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance and is the largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company in the world. Chubb operates in 55 countries and territories and in the Lloyd's insurance market in London. Clients of Chubb consist of multinational corporations and local businesses, individuals, and insurers seeking reinsurance coverage. Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance.
Churning is the practice of executing trades for an investment account by a salesperson or broker in order to generate commission from the account. It is a breach of securities law in many jurisdictions, and it is generally actionable by the account holder for the return of the commissions paid, and any losses occasioned by the broker's choice of stocks.
Prime brokerage is the generic term for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks, wealth management firms, and securities dealers to hedge funds which need the ability to borrow securities and cash in order to be able to invest on a netted basis and achieve an absolute return. The prime broker provides a centralized securities clearing facility for the hedge fund so the hedge fund's collateral requirements are netted across all deals handled by the prime broker. These two features are advantageous to their clients.
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation is a federally mandated, non-profit, member-funded, United States government corporation created under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) of 1970 that mandates membership of most US-registered broker-dealers. Although created by federal legislation and overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SIPC is neither a government agency nor a regulator of broker-dealers. The purpose of the SIPC is to expedite the recovery and return of missing customer cash and assets during the liquidation of a failed investment firm.
Front running, also known as tailgating, is the practice of entering into an equity (stock) trade, option, futures contract, derivative, or security-based swap to capitalize on advance, nonpublic knowledge of a large ("block") pending transaction that will influence the price of the underlying security. In essence, it means the practice of engaging in a personal or proprietary securities transaction in advance of a transaction in the same security for a client's account. Front running is considered a form of market manipulation in many markets. Cases typically involve individual brokers or brokerage firms trading stock in and out of undisclosed, unmonitored accounts of relatives or confederates. Institutional and individual investors may also commit a front running violation when they are privy to inside information. A front running firm either buys for its own account before filling customer buy orders that drive up the price, or sells for its own account before filling customer sell orders that drive down the price. Front running is prohibited since the front-runner profits come from nonpublic information, at the expense of its own customers, the block trade, or the public market.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is an American diversified financial services company and bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It provides financial planning products and services, including wealth management, asset management, insurance, annuities, and estate planning.
An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negotiating with multiple insurers, while an agent represents one or more specific insurers under a contract.
Herb Greenberg is an American journalist.
Eric R. Dinallo is a partner and chair of the insurance regulatory practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and a member of the firm's Financial Institutions and White Collar & Regulatory Defense Groups. Formerly Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Counsel at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Inc. Formerly Superintendent of Insurance for New York State, he was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer and confirmed by the New York State Senate on April 18, 2007, as the 39th Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department. On May 28, 2009, he announced his resignation and subsequently left state government service to become a visiting professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. On August 24, 2009, Dinallo announced that he was preparing for a possible campaign for the elected office of New York State Attorney General. He was defeated in the primary on September 14, 2010, by Eric T. Schneiderman, who went on to win the office in the general election.
Payment for order flow (PFOF) is the compensation that a stockbroker receives from a market maker in exchange for the broker routing its clients' trades to that market maker. It is a controversial practice that has been called a "kickback" by its critics. Policymakers supportive of PFOF and several people in finance who have a favorable view of the practice have defended it for helping develop new investment apps, low-cost trading, and more efficient execution.
FXCM, also known as Forex Capital Markets, is a retail foreign exchange broker for trading on the foreign exchange market. FXCM allows people to speculate on the foreign exchange market and provides trading in contract for difference (CFDs) on major indices and commodities such as gold and crude oil. It is based in London.
Howard D. Mills III is an American insurance consultant and former politician from Goshen, New York. He served as New York's Superintendent of Insurance from 2005 to 2006, and previously held elective office in both the New York State Assembly and the Town of Wallkill.
Merrill, previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banking arm, both firms engage in prime brokerage and broker-dealer activities. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and once occupied the entire 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex in Manhattan. Merrill employs over 14,000 financial advisors and manages $2.8 trillion in client assets. The company also operates Merrill Edge, a division for investment and related services, including call center counsultancy.
CI Direct Trading, a division of CI Investment Services Inc., is an online brokerage firm that provides an electronic trading platform to trade financial assets. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and provides trade execution services for various financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, options, exchange-traded fund (ETF) and mutual funds.
Between 1995 and 2000 music companies were found to have used illegal marketing agreements such as minimum advertised pricing to artificially inflate prices of compact discs in order to end price wars by discounters such as Best Buy and Target in the early 1990s. It is estimated customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album.
Marsh is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with operations in insurance broking and risk management. Marsh is a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan and a member of its Risk & Insurance Services business unit. Currently, approximately 45,400 Marsh employees provide risk management, insurance broking, insurance program management, risk consulting, analytical modeling and alternative risk financing services to a wide range of businesses, government entities, professional service organizations and individuals in more than 130 countries. Marsh's $10.208 billion in revenue in 2021 accounted for 52% of the parent company's fiscal year revenue.