Indian Mutual Fundsblogs

Peter Scannell Market Timing Whistle Blower ( Mutual Funds )..In March 2000Peter Scannell had only a fundamental knowledge of how a mutual fund company worked. Despite thishe got a job at Putnam Investments call center in Quincy Massachusetts . Peter Scannell was only working there a short time when he became aware of efforts by outside investors to make rapid trades in and out of Putnam. Calls would flood thecall center in thelate afternoons between 3 and 4 pm. thetrades were made by eager investors ready to make huge transfersreflecting a practice known as market timing. When U.S. stocks surgedtheboilermakers bought into funds composed of foreign companieswhich had finished trading before prices for those funds were set at 4 p.m. They were betting that theinternational markets would follow Wall Streets trajectory thenext dayscoring them a quick profit. Market timing is not illegal. Howeverit can erode thegains of longterm investors. Scannell says he told supervisors he thought thetransfers might be against theNational Association of Securities Dealers rules. His supervisors laughed at him saying it was not his concern and that it wasnt illegal. With this Scannell told his bosses he would no longer accept transfers from known market timers. His bosses were furious. Two days laterScannell was hit in thehead with a brick by a man wearing a Boilermakers Local 5 sweatshirt. theBoilermakers Local 5 union were one of thegroups known to Scannell as engaging in themarket timing scandal. UndeterredScannell went to theBoston office of theSecurities and Exchange Commission. Five months went by. theagency didnt act on his tipeven though he had documents that backed up his claims which he had taken theday after he quit. FinallytheMassachusetts regulators stepped in. They determined that in thelast three years at least 28 of theunions members made between 150 and 500 tradesscoring gains of up to $1 million each. theinvestigators also zeroed in on two emails from thefirms internal monitors: It appeared they had been aware of thetroublesome activity since thespring of 2000. This led to state civil fraud charges against Putnamtheresignation of its CEOLawrence Lasserand thewithdrawal of more than $20 billion from its funds. About theAuthor
Founder of corporatenarc.com. corporatenarc.com is dedicated to exposing corporate and business scandalsscamsfraud and deception.
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