The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)" ...
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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Investment Conflict on Wall Street: "Wall Street's Dumping Ground" and "Bank Funds Draining Investors"
"Wall Street's five largest investment banks helped banking clients - and neglected investor interests - during the stock market boom and bust by loading up in-house mutual funds with shares of client companies that pay the banks millions in fees. Funds at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and three other banks held on to millions of shares of client companies during the 2000-2003 market slump, even though the value of the shares plummeted as much as 99 percent."
Tags: business; banking; investment; Securities and Exchange Commission; SEC; US Senate Banking Committee; Harvey Pitt
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Trust bank has long history of angry investors
This investigation centers on Security Trust, which the New York attorney general had implicated in a scheme of illegal after hours trading though the company had not been charged. USA Today uncovered records that showed more than a dozen lawsuits against Security Trust officers and related companies as well as censures and cease-and-desist orders by the Arizona State Banking Department.
Tags: mutual funds; banking; securities; Securities and Exchange Commission; SEC; investment fraud; stock market
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Banking on your money
Commerce Bancorp- one of the nation's fastest growing financial services companies-has also become the biggest private political benefactor New Jersey has seen in a century. The bank's far-reaching political clout and regular campaign contributions-more than $1.6 million in the last five years-have helped Commerce obtain more no-bid government banking, bond and insurance contracts in the state than any of its competitors, including much larger banks such as Wachovia and Fleet.
Tags: Commerce Bancorp; Wachovia Bank; Fleet Bank; FDIC; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Securities and Exchange Commission; SEC; Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB); campaign contributions; taxpayer money; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter trust; government banking; underwriting; financial advising; New Jersey State League of Municipalities'; Commerce Insurance Services; Gloucester County Democratic Committee; Gloucester County Board of Freeholders; Ocean County Republican Finance Committee
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New ethics or no ethics?
This multi-piece report analyzes the ethical transgressions that some Internet entrepeneurs have performed as Internet-based companies have become more valuable in the stock market during the last part of the 1990's and the beginning of the 2000 decade. The reporters tell the story of several CEO's who made millions of dollars by selling stock of companies they were running and which seemed robust, but were extremely volatile.
Tags: Internet; Internet entrepeneurs; venture capitalists; Wall Street; Silicon Valley; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); Financial Accounting Standards Board; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Investor Responsibility Research Center
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Fraud Outruns the Feds: Investors lose almost $1 billion in five years
According to the authors, "Federal watchdogs have been largely ineffective in combating securities fraud and helping victims recover their money. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's investigation of all 121 cases filed in the Southeastern U.S. by the Securities and Exchange Commission's Miami office during the past five years also found that 25 percent of violators had been the subject of at least one previous regulatory or criminal action involving fraud or economic crime; only 20 percent of the agency's cases against violators resulted in criminal prosecutions; and SEC violations resulted in $176 million in fines and penalties being levied, although only about $6.5 million has been collected. Investors losses in these securities fraud cases totalled at least $938 million."
Tags: fraud; Florida; criminal; prosecutions; SEC; Securities and Exchange Commission; money; fines; penalties; federal; Miami
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Tax Cheats
The Times reports on how companies and rich families use off-shore services -- such as registering in Bermuda, under the advice of Ernst & Young -- to avoid paying taxes. The stories reveal that the federal government has lost billions of dollars each year in evaded taxes. As a result of the uproar, many Republicans in Congress have broken with the party leadership and have voted to tighten the legal loophole.
Tags: federal contracts; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); offshore companies; Justice Department; tax treaties
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Rich Man, Poor Company
San Jose Mercury News reports that "insiders at 40 companies took home $3.4 billion from selling their stock even though their company's value fell at least 99.5 percent from what is was at the height of the boom. It was a remarkable transfer of wealth from the pockets of thousand of anonymous investors into the wallets of executives and directors who won even when their companies lost."
Tags: business; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); bankruptcy; shareholders
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Edison Schools: An Education in Financial Deception
A Bloomberg News investigation shows how Edison Schools Inc. -- "the largest private manager of public schools in the U.S. -- artificially inflated its annual revenue by 41 percent in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission." Other findings are that Edison booked revenue from the Sherman, Texas, school district, and that budget problems prevented the company from providing textbooks for schools in Pennsylvania.
Tags: finances; overspending; SEC; accounting standards; privatization of education; stocks and bonds; business
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Corporate Collapse
The Times reports on corporate scandals surrounding energy company Enron, audit firm Arthur Andersen and telecom giant WorldCom. According to the contest entry summary: "In each case, months after publication and following in-depth investigation by authorities, the information in these stories would become the accepted version of the facts. In essence, these stories took the most important -- and most confusing -- events of the past year and quickly ascertained the truth of what had been happening inside the thick walls of a series of corporations."
Tags: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); stocks and bonds; Wall Street conflicts of interest; bankruptcy; special purpose entities; corruption; corporations; accounting; finances