In a curious case of absent oversight, Morgan Stanley Investment Management has been fined $1.5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for improperly charging a fund it manages for investment advisory services that were never performed.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. From 1996 to 2007, it charged The Malaysia Fund Inc. about $1.845 million pursuant to a research and advisory agreement with AMMB Consultant Sendirian Berhad. Under the agreement, AMMB was supposed to provide advice, research, and assistance to...

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An analysis by The New York Times of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions during the past 15 years has found that Wall Street firms have broken antifraud laws they had pledged not to breach in at least 51 cases.

These cases involved 19 different firms, according to a report that appeared in the newspaper on Nov 7.

Citigroup’s recent attempt to settle civil charges that it had defrauded custo...

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Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., and its subsidiary Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, have been fined $1 million and censured by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, for excessive markups and markdowns that were charged to customers on corporate and municipal bond transactions.

The firm was also ordered to $371,475 in restitution plus interest to the customers. 

In addition, FINRA found that Morgan Stanley’s supervisory system was not reasonably designed to achieve compliance with securities laws and regul...

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Brian Simone, a disgraced lawyer and former stockbroker, has been banned from the securities business after he falsified paperwork and failed to reveal that he had been disbarred in Massachusetts after allegations of forgery, fraud, misappropriation of funds, and misrepresentation.

On Oct. 6, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, executed an order accepting an offer of settlement submitted by Simone on Sept. 26, wherein the former lawyer agreed to be bar...

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Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, or more accurately, its predecessor Morgan Stanley & Co., the

Morgan Stanley part of the June 2009 joint venture with Morgan Stanley & Co. and the Smith Barney division of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., is no stranger to e-mail problems.

In a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") securities arbitration, we represented an individual investor, whose account was made worthless trading unapproved Morgan Stanley low priced and otherwise highly speculative securities on margin, and it was uncovered by our firm an...

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