suspension of brokers

[shongy]

hi guys,pls can someone confirm the news about the suspension of about 15 brokers & what r their names

[jumyj]

SEC suspends 40 operators, drags 13 to EFCC
Written by Leon Usigbe & Tordue Salem
Vanguard ,Wednesday, 07 May 2008

THE Director-General of The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Mallam Musa Al-Faki, yesterday told Capital Market and Banking and Currency Committees of the House of Representatives that 40 of stock market operators were suspended by the commission for sharp practices.
While 13 others with more serious offences were referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Reps are investigating the delay in the issuance of share purchase certificates by banks, the ever-piling unclaimed dividends and depositors’ funds trapped in distressed banks among other things.

The commission’s decision is coming on the heels of increase in unclaimed dividends of shareholders which has risen to N12,830,584,780.94 in February this year against the N9,329,207,291.12 as at December 2007.

The D-G also admitted that the SEC lacked competence to exercise control on companies going for IPO as there was no law covering such. He said the SEC law needed to be strengthened to give the commission the enabling power to exercise control on companies.

Al-Faki said fines and penalties were imposed on various operators during the year for breaches ranging from late rendition of returns and submission of inaccurate returns, adding that the premises of four companies that engaged in illegal capital market operation were also sealed off within the same period while the bank accounts of 37 illegal fund managers operating in different parts of the country were frozen.

Operators referred to EFCC

Operators referred to the EFCC include Riverside Trust Limited, MBA Security Limited, Morgan Trust an & Asset Management Ltd Plc, UAC Plc & Michael Adegbusi, former MD/CEO of Transglobe Investment & Finance Ltd, Wilberforce Onwuka, Akitorch Securities Ltd and Halsec Finance Ltd.

Others are Golden Guinea Breweries Ltd, Nospecto Oil & Gas Ltd, Beachgrove Securities & Investment Ltd, Asset Plus Securities Ltd, ET & T Stockbrokers Ltd and Bonkolans Investment Ltd.

Operators referred to Police

Those already referred to the Police by the Enforcement Division of the Commission include ET & T Stockbrokers Limited, Akitorch Securities Limited, Asset Plus Securities Limited, Eagle Stockbrokers Limited, Royal Trust Limited and unregistered capital market operators in Ilorin, Gombe, Minna, Aba, Kaduna and Uyo.

Others who have also been referred to the police are Thomas Kingsley Securities Limited and Chief Kingsley Ikpe, Egbune Fredrick Jibrin VS John Nsofor of GilJohn Investment Limited Espphil Investment & Trust Limited and Mr. Philip Owoseni and Philip Aduma VS Stakeholders Limited.

The four companies sealed are Tripple “S” Stockbrokers Limited, CBS Chart International Limited Exceed and Rewards Asset Management Limited and Divine Harvest International Limited.

37 illegal fund managers uncovered

Al-Faki said the Enforcement Division discovered 37 illegal funds managers operating in Lagos, Ibadan and Port Harcourt and obtained orders from IST to freeze the bank accounts of the companies.

Dealing licenses of Viva Securities Limited, Beachgrove Securities Limited, Asset Plus Limited, Riverside Securities Limited, Akitorch Securities Limited, Morgan Trust & Asset Management Limited and Jenkins Limited have been revoked by the commission.

For the Investigation Division, Al-Faki said 1,220 cases were investigated against stockbrokers and 1,876 against Registrars.

He added that the Investigation Division also received 4,739 special complaints on non-receipt of shares certificates and resolved 993 cases.

But he said the commission had 2,103 pending cases excluding special complaints being handled by a committee on non-receipt of share certificates and return monies.

The Director-General who emphasised the cooperation of the EFCC with the Commission said a total 294,985 money laundering transaction reports were forwarded to the EFCC while the SEC receives an average of five complaints per day.

Al-Faki said the Administrative Proceeding Division (APD) of the commission also decided on the financial misstatements of Cadbury accounts (2002-2004) on March 27 and 28 this year where all parties penalised were given 21 days to comply with the decision.

Similarly, the commission decided on the case of cloning and illegal sale of Nestle Nigeria Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc shares by a syndicate group of stock brokers led by Brokolans Investments and Securities Limited.

The DG said there was no law to control companies from proceeding on public offers. “We are biting more than we can chew because we are in a sensitive sector but we are collaborating to enforce sanctions but I don’t have monopoly of wisdom and we are learning everyday,” he said.

The Committee Chairman, Mr Aliyu Wada said: “SEC should assert its authority and allow other agencies to take off from there. You are empowered to regulate the market and sanction any erring company.”

The committee then asked him to put in writing what the commission will do about Oceanic Bank and Bank PHB over unclaimed dividends and non-compliance with the law that stipulates issuance of dividend warrants one months after AGM which Oceanic Bank had flouted.


Vanguard 07/05/2008