Countrywide's Mozilo Charged With Fraud

'New York Times' analysis finds 350 instances of banks getting free passes

(NEWSER) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has repeatedly allowed Wall Street's biggest banks to avoid penalties specifically intended to punish and deter fraud, a New York Times analysis of SEC records reveals. Over the past decade, the SEC has on almost 350 occasions granted waivers exempting big financial companies from sanctions, allowing banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to continue to enjoy advantages, like protection from shareholder lawsuits, that are supposed to be reserved for the most dependable companies. More»

Daniel Ruettiger, 12 others accused of 'pump-and-dump' scheme

(NEWSER) - Daniel Ruettiger—the man who inspired the 1993 movie Rudy, about an undersized student who earned a spot on Notre Dame's football team—is paying a full-sized $382,866 to settle fraud charges with the SEC, reports the Wall Street Journal . Ruettiger and 12 accomplices were charged with a "pump-and-dump" stock scheme that generated $11 million in allegedly illegitimate profits in energy drink company Rudy Nutrition. More»

Their triple-A-rated securities are now junk, they claim

(NEWSER) - Investors are suing Bank of America’s Countrywide mortgage unit, claiming they were fraudulently led into purchasing supposedly triple-A-rated mortgage-backed securities that turned out to be junk. Between 2005 and 2007, the investors bought hundreds of millions of dollars of securities that were supposed to be “conservative” and “low-risk.” But Countrywide misrepresented just how safe those securities were, and also ignored its own underwriting guidelines, the lawsuit claims. More»

Andrew Cuomo cites 'massive accounting fraud' in Lehman Bros. dealings

(NEWSER) - Andrew Cuomo filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Ernst & Young today, following reports that the company allegedly helped Lehman Brothers mislead investors . According to the complaint, the accounting firm approved Lehman’s use of “Repo 105” transactions, a type of debt that was labeled as sales to reduce the appearance of risk to investors, and stood idly by while Lehman misled investors and analysts on conference calls, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»

$500M penalty amounts to just 2 weeks of profits

(NEWSER) - The SEC is boasting that the $550 million settlement it agreed to with Goldman Sachs is the "largest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street firm." That may be true, but that doesn't mean it's actually going to chasten Goldman. Top put things in perspective, Pro Publica notes that the fine is...

• ... less than Goldman gave away to small businesses as a PR move in November.
• ... less than one-tenth of the value Goldman stock gained yesterday on news of a settlement.