We suspect that when Harry Markopolis called FINRA “corrupt,” he at least seems to have hit the nail on the head:
Two employees of Allen Stanford’s financial business, which U.S. regulators have accused of massive fraud, held advisory roles at a watchdog group overseeing U.S. broker-dealers aimed at preventing abuses.
Lena Stinson, director of global compliance at Stanford Financial Group, is listed as serving on the membership committee of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, which describes itself as the largest independent regulator of U.S. securities firms.
Frederick Fram, the chief operating officer of Stanford Group Holdings, serves on the FINRA continuing education content committee, “where he participates in creating material for the Regulatory Element continuing education program,” according to a biography on Stanford’s website.
Entertaining. Of course, don’t forget:
On Tuesday, FINRA named Richard Ketchum as its chief executive officer. He replaces Mary Schapiro, who resigned after she was confirmed as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Harry For-lorn, of course
Barry, replace Mary with Harry and hurry.
Add to list of red flags: Has employee(s) on regulatory boards etc.
(i.e. a shady lawyer will try and get appointed to the Disciplinary Committee.)
Self-regulation is a joke, so FINRA is a joke, and they have been pretty successful in watering down the SEC. That’s bad for investors. And having Mary as head of the SEC is not much different than having Harvey Pitt in that position, or Cox. Bad move for investors, great move for the scamsters at Wall Street.
These ‘regulators’ appear to breed these eveil beings do they not?
@4
just you wait and see how they go the other way
they”re gonna roll out like the untouchables now, kicking down doors and shit
everybody, guilty or innocent, will be rounded up and bullied to make up for their massive failures
@ 6 –
Oh, BS — what they’ll do is run a whole lotta falluja style SWAT raids on small potatoes fucktards to make it LOOK like they’re “kicking ass and taking names” but the large scale fuckballs will continue to bone the snot outta everyone.
@4
FINRA is a joke, but not because of self regulation – it’s a joke because they put panty wearing pure overhead types in charge. Lifelong bureaucrats like all the fuckheads in the Obama cabinet (and the fuckhead himself) – douches that have never had real jobs (no, you NYC pillow biters – Obama has never had a real job). Thus, everything they do is based on textbooks, emotions, and kick-backs. Just like the president himself, and any other politician, regulator, or otherwise sucker of tax / fee dollars, for whom service is the idea of shoving ideas on the market, not serving the market itself.
You could take an Edward Jones broker and put him in charge of Finra, and he’d at least know where to look, in terms of finding actual fraud in retail. You could take a Merideth Whitney equity salesman, presumably an ex-Opco guy, and he’d know exactly where to look for illegal dumps of restricted stock, etc.
@8 – why dont you tell us how you really feel?
Why doesn’t Timmay hire Harry and his crew?
@8
At least you are self-consistent. You said Whitney (type) equity salesman, so no panty wearing ex-Opco female need to apply (you hope).
Still, self-regulation is a joke. Unless it’s the mob you are talking about. Those wise guys self-regulate pretty good.
Look for Jane Bates and Keith Roberts in connection with NASD/FINRA and Stanford. Jane and Keith were both at Stanford and worked closely with regulators.
Even better, the Chief Compliance Officer of Stanford (Bernie Young) was the Director of NASD’s Dallas office before he flipped and started “consulting” and then went to Stanford. Allen bought and paid for the Dallas NASD/FINRA office. He made sure the regulators looked the other way whenever they heard of things going on at Stanford.
NSCP 2005 National Membership Meeting
Monday October 24, Tuesday October 25, and Wednesday October 26, 2005
V(e) IA Regulatory Audits
• Changes in the SEC examination process
• The SEC’s new best friend, the CCO
• Preparing for the inevitable visit
• Prevention, detection and correction
Jane E. Bates, Stanford Group Company
Robert L. Stype, Adviser Compliance Associates, LLC
http://www.nscpmeetings.com/2005/national.html
@12, @13
Good info. And for those who don’t remember, on July 30, 2007, NASD changed its name to FINRA.
@4 & @11
Hogwash. No one with the power to affect the actual decisions @ FINRA is going to support putting someone in power there who might, gasp, actually DO something.
Just like the SEC, hire a bunch of straight out of law school types, who despite having some good intentions, are mostly in it as a springboard to a lucrative gig in private practice down the road.
Incentives people, all about the incentives…
Mary Schap presided over a cesspool before and she’s taking one over now, except at the SEC no one even has a chance to earn the $3million plus she earned at FINRA, so they are even harder on the bit waiting to get out into the firms they regulate. Obama must have been kidding when he app’ted her and Geithner and the CFTC guy. He’s like Bush 3. What a joke.
S to the R to the O…
Wasn’t too long ago when many on the Street were complaining that additional regulation would drive financial firms to set up shop overseas where the cost or regulation was less…many have done so for years (Caymans, Antigua etc) to also take advantage of more favorable tax laws…
Self regulation, like letting risk management report to the business/rainmakers will never result in a robust set of checks and balances…