Eight former Fidelity Investments employees are to pay more than $1 million, in all, to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they improperly accepted gifts paid for by brokers courting Fidelity's business, the agency has announced.
The eight were among 13 named in the agency's investigation, which found that Wall Street brokers allegedly plied traders at Fidelity with $1.5 million of gifts, travel, and entertainment to obtain Fidelity's business from 2002 to 2004, the SEC said on Thursday.
It said it reached a preliminary settlement with the eight employees in October after charging 10 former employees, including Scott E. DeSano, a former vice president and head of the trading desk, in March. Three other people named by the agency investigators settled with the agency in March, when Fidelity agreed to pay $8 million to settle the probe, without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
The commission concluded Mr. DeSano, along with seven others, violated federal securities laws by accepting the gifts. It also found that Mr. DeSano was a cause of the company's failure to seek the best execution for its clients and to disclose conflicts of interest. He also allegedly failed to properly supervise the other brokers.
