The regulatory arm of the New York Stock Exchange levied fines
against three firms and disciplined two individuals for various
violations.
NYSE Regulation said Wednesday in its monthly regulatory report
that it had fined Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $450,000 for
various rule violations, though the amount to be paid will be
halved in light of a separate settlement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The alleged NYSE violations include failing to
close out fail-to-deliver positions in equities in a timely manner
and taking customer short-sale orders in equity securities for
which it had an open fail-to-deliver position when the customer
hadn't first borrowed the securities.
UBS AG (UBS) was fined $350,000 as it violated a rule 21 times
from January 2005 through the end of 2008 by taking actions such as
trading along with or ahead of a customer's order without consent
to do so.
And Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. was fined $250,000 for failing
to reasonably supervise the personal and proprietary
equities-trading accounts of the then-CEO of one of its business
units, DCM.
NYSE Regulation also said David Shin entered fictitious
transactions that were printed to consolidated tape that never
occurred in the open market, had no legitimate buyer or seller and
were not submitted for clearance. He agreed to a four-month
bar.
Meanwhile, Mark Stephen Kolber agreed to a two-month bar for
placing non-market-making transactions in market-making accounts
that were supposed to be used for market-making transactions,
improperly causing his clearing firm to extend preferential margin
treatment.
All the parties consented to NYSE Regulations findings and
actions, but neither admitted nor denied guilt.
-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855;
nathan.becker@dowjones.com