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SEC charges two Houston firms with mortgage-backed bonds crimes
by Joseph Earnest November 26, 2013
Newscast Media WASHINGTON— The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against two Houston-based investment advisory firms and three executives for engineering thousands of principal transactions through their affiliated brokerage firm without informing their clients.
One of the firms — along with its chief compliance officer — also is charged with violations of the "custody rule" that requires firms to meet certain standards when maintaining custody of client funds or securities.
In a principal transaction, an investment adviser acting for its own account or through an affiliated broker-dealer buys a security from a client account or sells a security to it. Principal transactions can pose potential conflicts between the interests of the adviser and the client, and therefore advisers are required to disclose in writing any financial interest or conflicted role when advising a client on the other side of the trade. They must also obtain the client's consent.
"By failing to disclose principal transactions and obtain consent, Parallax and Tri-Star Advisors deprived their clients of knowing in advance that their advisers stood to benefit substantially by running the trades through an affiliated account," said Marshall S. Sprung, co-chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit.
Click here to read or download SEC's complaint against Parallax. (pop-up)
Click here to read or download SEC's complaint against Tri-Star. (pop-up)
According to the SEC's orders instituting administrative proceedings, Bott initiated and executed at least 2,000 undisclosed principal transactions from 2009 to 2011 without the consent of Parallax clients. In each transaction, Parallax’s affiliated brokerage firm Tri-Star Financial used its inventory account to purchase mortgage-backed bonds for Parallax clients and then transferred the bonds to the applicable client accounts. Bott received nearly half of the $1.9 million in sales credits collected by Tri-Star Financial on these transactions.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by R. Joann Harris and Asset Management Unit member Barbara L. Gunn of the Fort Worth Regional Office. The SEC's litigation will be led by Jennifer Brandt. Add Comments>>
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