Articles Tagged with securities fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that investors should be on the lookout for fraudulent claims using Forms 4.

A Form 4 is filed when investment insiders (officers, directors and anyone holding 10% or more in company securities) execute transactions. A Form 4, which must be filed within two days following a transaction, serves to inform the public of the insider’s transactions in company stock and other securities.

Apparently, scammers and fraudsters are posing as brokers and providing false Forms 4 and other official documentation to investors in order to sell them fake shares. By using forms that appear to be sent from the SEC and other regulatory agencies, scammers seek to legitimize fraudulent claims.

Risk-taking is a natural part of making financial investments

These should be calculated risks, though; risks based on performance projections of whatever is being invested in.

Though financial investments should not include those unforeseen or unaccounted for risks like fraud, investors are constantly facing it.

Brokerage oversight is getting a fresh pair of eyes

This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated that it would be calling on a need for more oversight from its financial regulation partner, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

The decision to shift responsibility comes with an SEC initiative to devote more energies towards the rise of independent financial advisers.

The Cause

Big banks on Wall Street had been left unchecked for too long and the introduction of sub-prime lending tactics sealed the fate of U.S. financial stability. A culture of smoke-and-mirrors misleading consumers, coupled with a dire lack of regulatory oversight allowed big banks to run rampant.

Years of bad banking tactics caught up with the U.S. economy in 2008, resulting in the worst economic recession seen in the country since the “Great Depression” of the 1930s.

It seems that mosquitoes aren’t the only thing people will have to watch out for on the Zika front. As with any public crisis, the outbreak of the Zika virus has come with the threat of investment fraud in tow. Crooks and scam artists exploit crises like this one by preying on public anxieties. This sort of behavior is not only detrimental to victims of investment scams, but also further clouds public perception of a crisis by circulating false information.

As such, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an Investor Alert in an effort to prevent anyone falling victim to financial fraud. The SEC’s investor alert covers several tips and warning signs to know if you may be getting involved in an investment scam.

  • Unregistered investment professionals

logo-squareLike many investment schemes, the opportunity to invest in a Florida technology company developing a product for the NFL sounded too good to be true. In fact, it was entirely false. Now three Florida men are in prison for their roles selling shares in the fake company.

Stock fraud, also known as securities fraud, is a scheme to entice investors to make buy stock using information that is incomplete, misleading, or even false. The untrue statements can be related to a company’s financial statements, or its business plans. When an investment opportunity sparks suspicion, a Florida stock fraud lawyer can help you determine what to next.

In the fake NFL technology company scheme, federal prosecutors said that the victims, many of them seniors, were enticed to invest in a Miami Beach company that the fraudsters claimed was soon-to-go public, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

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