Kansas reaches $800K Settlement with Goldman Sachs
The office of Kansas’ securities commissioner, Marc Wilson, announced Friday that the state has reached an $800,000 settlement with Goldman, Sachs & Co.
The settlement was in conjunction with an auction rate securities investigation, based on claims the firm misled Kansas investors about auction rate securities.
“This settlement sends a strong message to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms that Kansas investors demand integrity from securities dealers,” Wilson said in a news release. “Full and truthful disclosure is a cornerstone without which markets cannot function. If firms do not meet these high standards, we will take action on behalf of Kansas investors.”
Goldman Sachs is one of the ownership entities behind Hawker Beechcraft Corp. in Wichita. Hawker was acquired by GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners in 2007 for $3.3 billion.
The state’s press release about the settlement, along with settlement totals from 11 other similar cases dating back to June 2009, can be seen here.
Read the article here
Kansas Securities Commissioner reaches settlement agreement with Goldman, Sachs & Co., Other Wall Street GiantsFor immediate release
October 29, 2010.... . . .“This settlement sends a strong message to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms that Kansas investors demand integrity from securities dealers,” said the Commissioner. “Full and truthful disclosure is a cornerstone without which markets cannot function. If firms do not meet these high standards, we will take action on behalf of Kansas investors.”
During the investigation, regulators discovered that the firm’s securities dealers failed to adequately inform customers and train employees on the risks associated with purchasing ARS. Although marketed and sold to investors as safe, liquid and cash-like investments, ARS are actually long-term investments. They are subject to a complex auction process that failed in early 2008 when the firms marketing ARS stopped providing liquidity to the market. Investors not only saw lower returns, but they were also unable to access their money for current needs.
“At critical times, Kansas investors and small businesses were not able to access their own money, and that is completely unacceptable,” said the Commissioner. “It is our hope these things never happen, but when abuses like this occur our job is to be the advocate for Kansas investors and level the playing field.”
The settlement also obligates Goldman Sachs to other remediation for investors. The fine paid by the firm will be placed in the Kansas Investor Education Fund. The fund gives grants to organizations which provide fraud prevention and financial literacy services and otherwise helps KSC carry out its investor education legislative mandate.
The Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner has also reached settlement agreements with 11 other firms in similar cases, with fines totaling more than $5.9 million. These previous settlements made their way to the State General Fund.
The settlements were negotiated by multi-state task forces of state securities regulators under the auspices of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). . . .
4 COMMENTS:
Get out of your slumber.....
Sunday, October 31, 2010
“Protest works. Just look at the proof”
t’s astonishing to see how Americans have been conditioned to think that political action and engagement is futile. I’m old enough to have witnessed the reverse, how activism in the 1960s produced significant advances in civil rights blacks and women, and eventually led the US to exit the Vietnam War.
I’m reminded of this sense of despair almost daily in the comments section. Whenever possible action steps come up, virtually without fail, quite a few will argue that there is no point in making an effort, that we as individuals are powerless.
From Johann Hari:
There is a ripple of rage spreading across Britain. It is clearer every day that the people of this country have been colossally scammed. The bankers who crashed the economy are richer and fatter than ever, on our cash. The Prime Minister who promised us before the election “we’re not talking about swingeing cuts” just imposed the worst cuts since the 1920s, condemning another million people to the dole queue. Yet the rage is matched by a flailing sense of impotence. We are furious, but we feel there is nothing we can do. There’s a mood that we have been stitched up by forces more powerful and devious than us, and all we can do is sit back and be shafted.
http://tinyurl.com/2wplb55
Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partyers – it’s ALL THE SAME. The U.S.
political system is about maintaining power for the elites, as well as
their benefactors in big business, the military, and Wall Street. The
people are getting poorer while the elites are getting richer, and
pretty soon the difference between U.S. society and what we scorned
for generations, the Communist Soviet Union – not to mention fictional
societies such as in George Orwell’s "1984" - will be indiscernible.
The below, long-awaited video from the National Inflation Association
titled "End of Liberty" was released today, and can be watched via the
link below. If this 74-minute piece doesn’t inspire you to immediate
action to PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES from the imminent,
inevitable ravages of hyperinflation, than NOTHING will.
'End of Liberty' is now out. This is the most important film you will
ever see. Please spread the word about 'End of Liberty' to everybody
you know on this Halloween day.
To watch 'End of Liberty' immediately, please go to our video page at:
http://inflation.us/videos.html
Well, Anonymous above, you seem to think that deregulation will be the solution to Liberty's problems. Sorry, deregulation brought you the financial meltdown in the first place!
@JR...you don't have to agree with everything but you can't deny as individuals our rights and recourse are waning!
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