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 "stockbroker" ...
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Bales: Army suspect in Afghan shooting was liable in financial fraud
On the day that tips arose about a U.S. soldier who may have strafed two Afghan villages, I left the office for a flight to Tacoma. Within 48 hours of the soldier’s being identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, I and two colleagues broke the news that the emerging hagiography of Bales drafted by family and attorneys had more to it than the story of a soldier who enlisted at the ripe of 27 driven by outrage over the 2001 terrorist attacks—and then broken down by an unrelenting cycle of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our story started with pure spidey senses: Bales’ s family and lawyer said he had left a stockbroker’s career to enlist, as they explained his call to serve. Yet he had not finished college and clearly had financial troubles, I had determined. And he was active in brokerage in the late 1990s in Florida I learned by checking assorted online records—which raised my suspicions about the quick-money penny stock trading that was commonplace then. Based on those instincts, while also doing the running daily story from Bales’ Army base in Washington state, I had checked some online brokerage records and enlisted Julie Tate to look at others and run through civil and criminal filings in Ohio (Bales’s home state and then nationally). Within an hour, I had found one suspicious record and Julie had found others and we were off on a 30-hour run of investigative reporting and boots on the ground interviews that yielded the breaking news of Bales’s more complicated—and less laudatory—past in the period just before he joined the Army. We located and I interviewed an elderly couple who had lost substantial savings in accounts managed by Bales and received copies of detailed financial records that corroborated their claims and showed Bales as the account manager. We also peeled back corporate records for a now-shuttered firm run by Bales and his brother with backing from a longtime friend and reached him to further flesh out the checkered professional history of the Staff Sgt. at the center of an explosive, fast-moving and intensely competitive story. The story demanded intense investigative reporting that netted notable results in far far less than 30 days of a breaking event.
Tags: U.S. soldier; Afghanistan; military draft; terrorist attacks; deployment
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Trade Secrets
This series of stories discusses the faults of stockbroker firms in Dallas, Texas. Though it isn't widely known, investors can view a broker's history through public access. The articles also show how to discover which brokers and firms have customer complaints filed against them.
Tags: Broker; investor; broker firms; stockbroker; stocks
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Wiped Out
BUSINESSWEEK tells the tale of how roughly 90 Proctor & Gamble workers were lured into quitting their jobs by the siren's call of a local stockbroker who promised them untold riches. Bill Gibbs, the stockbroker, convinced older workers to quit their jobs so he could gain control of their company-funded retirement accounts. As Gibbs' original investments began to falter, he sank his clients' portfolios heavily into tech and Internet stocks just as those sectors were peaking and about to begin devastating declines. Within a year, most of these workers saw their life savings wiped out.
Tags: A.G. Edwards; Procter & Gamble Co.; oil; health benefits; stockbroker; investing; life insurance; retirees; tech stocks; Internet stocks; portfolio; J.D. Power and Associates Inc.; First Union Brokerage; high yields; Dow Jones Industrial Average; Dow Dividend Strategy; Individual Retirement Account; Chevron; General Electric; General Motors; International Paper; 3M; high risk stocks; bankruptcy
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Campaign Inflation
Mother Jones investigates how "campaign contributions [during the 1999-2000 election cycle] are divided into 10 broad industries ranging from agribusiness to transportation." The donors' database analysis finds that "industry pumped in a record $646 million to elect George W. Bush and a GOP congress." The report reveals that "every major business sector expect lawyers and communications sided firmly with Bush." The investigation also profiles the top individual contributors within each business sector and sheds light on "what they expect in return." A major finding is that "candidates who raised more money than their opponents captured all but 29 of the 469 seats up for grabs in Congress - and the White House as well." This finding backs the conclusion that "the power of campaign contributions [has never] been more starkly displayed that in the last election."
Tags: contributions; donors; Democrats; Republicans; nonprofit; finance; stockbrokers; Wall Street; Silicon Valley; high tech; communications; manufacturing; energy; lawyers; schools
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Broker goes from rags to riches on back of state pension investments
Boston Herald investigates low-profile yet politically connected stockbroker who handles two large public employee retirement funds and has earned more than $2 million in personal income in the last three years handling those accounts.
Tags: Pensions; employment; investments; Wells; Caruso
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High Life Goes Bust For Athletes' Stockbroker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigates a high-flying stockbroker who bilked professional athletes out of thousands of dollars, July 8, 1990.
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Stockbroker who amassed empire is under investigation
Hartford Courant shows how a New Hampshire stockbroker wielded authority over New England regional thrift banks through his dual roles of investing in their stock and managing their investment portfolios, which he was able to do by using his own stock holdings as leverage over banks' management.
Tags: Weisman; McNerney; Bixby; Connecticut; Howard; insider; trading; savings and loans; stocks and bonds