Financial fraud includes activities like embezzlement, insider trading, and accounting fraud, inflicts substantial harm on society. It distorts the transparency and efficiency of financial markets, leading investors and regulators to make decisions based on false information, which can destabilize entire economic systems. The direct victims of financial fraud—ranging from individual investors to large corporations—can face devastating financial losses, potentially wiping out life savings or crippling business operations.
TL;DR:A federal court found that Safeguard Metals and its owner, Jeffrey Ikahn, ran a nationwide precious-metals scheme that drained retirement savings from more than 450 mostly elderly investors. The company used fear-based sales tactics, false claims about government rules, and…
TL;DR:Navian Capital Securities LLC mishandled reporting on more than two thousand corporate bond trades over nearly two years. The evil firm filed many trades late, filed others with wrong details, and left dozens out entirely, even after regulators raised red…
TL;DR:For almost four years, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC ran initial public offerings for institutional clients without a working system to make sure those investors actually received the legally required IPO prospectus at least 48 hours before trades were confirmed. Supervisors…
TL;DRInteractive Brokers LLC used an automated system to approve self-directed customers for options trading between November 2019 and December 2024. The system approved hundreds of customers even when their own answers about options experience jumped by years in a matter…
TL;DR: Stephens Inc. failed for years to run a basic, enforceable compliance system to police political donations by its municipal finance professionals. The firm outsourced core checks to a third party, skipped documented oversight, and enabled a contribution that broke…
TL;DR: A major brokerage (who has been in business since the 19th century) published years of order-routing transparency reports with wrong or missing information while lacking a basic supervisory system to make sure investors saw the truth. Regulators imposed a…
TL;DR: Goldman Sachs helped lead a July 2021 IPO while a Goldman affiliate stood to receive $96 million from the proceeds, triggering a conflict-of-interest rule that required extra investor safeguards the firm failed to put in place. At the same…
TL;DR: For more than five years, Wells Fargo Clearing Services ran municipal-entity accounts without a working guardrail to stop unregistered municipal advisory activity. Wells Fargo lacked clear guidance, failed to identify bond-proceeds deposits, and didn’t build controls to prevent its…
TL;DR: For 21 straight quarters (more than 5 years), T3 Trading Group withheld or gutted the public reports that show where it sent customers’ stock and options orders. The evil firm either published nothing or posted blank or skeletal “Rule…
TL;DR: U.S. Bancorp Investments (of U.S. Bank) used the wrong legal threshold to decide when to report suspicious activity. The evil corporation applied a $25,000 trigger (meant for banks btw) instead of the $5,000 trigger that broker-dealers must use. That…