securities fraud

Japanese optics giant Olympus is suing several former executives and its current president, seeking millions of dollars in damages after revelations about a decade-plus scheme that hid $1.7 billion in securities losses from investors.

After more than a week of deliberations, a jury has convicted former billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam on 14 counts of securities fraud. Federal authorities had called the insider trading case the biggest ever involving a hedge fund.

As multiple lawsuits and SEC actions progress in relation to the nation's mortgage mess, it's becoming clear that the misbehaviors of the lawyers involved at all stages were not isolated incidents: The misconduct was systemic, and it's time to start holding those lawyers accountable.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's report concludes that ineffective regulators and big banks were the primary causes of the financial meltdown. Next stop: Government and class action lawsuits to recoup some of what we all lost, and (please please please) criminal charges against the worst offenders too.

Two former executives with Camarillo, Calif.-based Vitesse Semiconductor were charged with securities fraud a week after the company's financial chief pled guilty to similar charges.

On Wednesday, the FBI arrested Don Chu, an expert on Asian markets for Primary Global Research, setting the tone for the SEC's crackdown on insider trading. Chu was charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In a case with wider implications for the financial industry, jurors in a class-action securities fraud suit found that BankAtlantic Bankcorp was liable to shareholders for about $42 million for making false statements about the bank's real estate portfolio and net income.

Two months after a Disney employee pled guilty of trying to sell information about earnings results in advance, the company is investigating the leak of its fourth-quarter earnings.

Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief executive officer who is serving a 24-year prison sentence for fraud, is seeking a new trial over government objections. Could Skilling soon regain his freedom?

Regulators brought securities fraud charges against actor Larry Wilcox, who played California Highway Patrol officer Jon Baker on the TV show "CHiPs." The SEC alleged that Wilcox and at least a dozen others were engaged in "various illicit kickback schemes to manipulate the volume and price of...