Dec. 11, 2003 — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced civil fraud charges against Milwaukee-based Heartland Advisors Inc. and several other entities and individuals for misrepresentations, mispricing and insider trading in two of Heartland Group’s high-yield municipal bond funds.
The Commission’s actions alleged violations in three primary areas — fund pricing, insider trading, and disclosure. The value of the funds, and a smaller related fund, dropped by approximately $93 million between Sept. 28 and Oct. 13, 2000, when Heartland sought to correct months of deliberate mispricing.
Charged in the civil action: Heartland Advisors Inc.; William Nasgovitz, its president and CEO; Paul Beste, its COO; Jilaine Bauer, its general counsel; Kevin Clark, its senior vice president of trading; Kenneth Della, its treasurer; Thomas Conlin and Greg Winston, former portfolio managers; Hugh Denison, an associated director; John Hammes, Gary Shilling, Allen Stefl, and Linda Stephenson, all independent directors; FT Interactive Data Corp., an independent pricing service; and Raymond Krueger, a friend and client of Nasgovitz.
In its complaint, the SEC charged Heartland, Nasgovitz, Beste, Bauer, Clark, Conlin, and Della with fraudulently pricing bonds in the funds. The Commission further alleged that the funds’ directors caused certain of Heartlands’ pricing violations when they failed to adequately follow up and resolve concerns about pricing issues that came to their attention.
The Commission charged FT Interactive with aiding and abetting and causing certain Heartland pricing violations.