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WASHINGTON - Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay US$17 million ($22.5 million) to settle charges that it failed to supervise four former financial advisers who are accused of engaging in deceptive trading practices, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.
Marc Plotkin, one of the former advisers, also agreed to pay US$90,000 to settle the case without admitting or denying the charges.
The SEC said the advisers opened multiple accounts for their hedge fund customers to allow the funds to engage in market timing from 2002 until 2003.
Market timing is the practice of short-term trading in mutual fund shares to exploit the inefficiencies of mutual fund pricing.
Morgan Stanley agreed to settle without admitting or denying the charges, the SEC said.
- REUTERS
