SEC settles fraud case

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled civil charges with a former executive at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and three others over a scheme to defraud savings banks and their depositors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled civil charges with a former executive at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and three others over a scheme to defraud savings banks and their depositors.
Former broker-dealer Bert Fingerhut settled charges that he led a 10-year scheme to shirk federal and state banking regulations and profit from the banks’ conversion from mutual to stock ownership.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that between 1997 and 2007, Mr. Fingerhut’s scheme generated more than $12 million in fraudulent profits from secondary market sales of bank stock illegally obtained in 65 public offerings.
The SEC added that its claim for civil fines against Mr. Fingerhut is still pending.
In another case, Mr. Fingerhut pleaded guilty to related criminal charges in federal court in the Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and agreed to pay $11 million in forfeited profits.
Additionally, the SEC also settled with Robert Danetz, Mr. Fingerhut’s childhood friend; Bruce Fingerhut, Bert Fingerhut’s nephew; and Stephen Danetz, Robert Danetz’s brother.
Stephen Danetz agreed to pay $137,975 in ill-gotten gains, and a $120,000 civil penalty.
Bruce Fingerhut agreed to pay $181,269 in ill-gotten gains and a civil penalty of $150,000 to settle the SEC charges.
The SEC’s civil penalty claims against Robert Danetz are still pending.
The four men settled with the SEC without admitting or denying the charges.
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. is based in New York.