In an arrangement between MoeMoney Investment Advisers and one of the firm's clients, the YourMoney mutual fund, part of MoeMoney's compensation is based how the fund performs compared to the S&P 500 Index. If the return on the fund exceeds the return on the index, MoeMoney gets a bonus. The S&P 500 had a return of negative 8% this year, and the fund returned a negative 2%, so MoeMoney invoiced the client for the bonus.
Has MoeMoney violated any securities laws?
Carrie is a registered agent employed by CanDo Broker-Dealers. Her uncle is a minister who regularly refers his parishioners to Carrie, in return for which Carrie has agreed to donate a quarter of her commissions from these transactions to the parish.
Is Carrie doing anything illegal?
Nat Smart was employed as an investment adviser representative and sold many of his clients on a municipal bond fund of which he was fond, telling his clients that the returns earned on it were completely free from federal taxation. Unfortunately, he had some unhappy clients when, at the end of the year, they discovered that they had to pay federal tax on the capital gains earned by the fund when it sold some of the bonds it held. Nat was as surprised as they were.
Based on these facts, which of the following statements is necessarily true?
I . Because Nat was as surprised as they were, he is guiltless.
II . Nat is subject to civil liability payments.
III . Nat will be subject to the criminal penalties for fraud and may spend time in prison.
Which of the following are examples of the prohibited practice of manipulation in the securities markets?
I . Broker-Dealer Joker is unhappy with its investment in the stock of a speculative firm and engages another broker-dealer to purchase a large number of shares from it, with the unofficial agreement to buy back those shares, offer more shares which the second broker-dealer will purchase, and so on.
II . Broker-Dealer Joker has a large short position in the stock of a certain corporation. Joker offers a bonus to its agents who effect sale transactions in the stock.
III . A client calls Broker-Dealer Joker with a request to purchase 20 bonds issued by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) The bonds are currently selling for their par value of $1,000. Knowing this, Joker offers to sells the client the bonds for $120 per $100 of par, or $1,200 per $1,000 bond.
BondsRUs is a broker-dealer that (unsurprisingly) specializes in bonds. The firm has found that it is able to sell Treasury bonds that it buys for $90 per $100 of par value for $99 per $100 of par value to some of its more nave clients, who never pay attention to the confirmation statements BondsRUs sends them. BondsRUs is guilty of