The Securities and Exchange Commission named its first-ever chief operating officer today when they hired Adam Storch, executive of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. with securities laws violations for having inadequate policies and procedures for controlling access to institutional customer order flow. Merrill Lynch agreed to settle the SEC’s charges and pay a $7 million penalty, among other remedies.

After Bernie Madoff is pleaded guilty in a Ponzi Scheme and ordered to jail SEC has charged two others from California in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme type of investment fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged seven individuals and two companies involved in an insider trading ring, alleging that Matthew Devlin, a former registered representative at Lehman Brothers, Inc. in New York City, traded on and tipped his clients and friends with confidential, nonpublic information about 13 impending corporate transactions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday approved a new rule to help protect seniors and other investors from fraudulent and abusive practices that can occur in the sale of equity-indexed annuities.

Sources close to Mr. Obama's transition team say he will nominate Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Schapiro currently heads a self-regulatory group for securities firms. She also is a former head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and a former SEC commissioner.

If anyone is a maverick, it's Mark Cuban. Not only is he the owner of the NBA franchise the Dallas Mavericks, he's a billionaire and Chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network. He's also poked his nose into things some think he should stay out of, such as commenting on politics and tech --- and blogging as well, on a blog with Maverick in its name. On Monday, he was charged with insider trading in the shares of Mamma.com by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC has announced an investigation after a fake report indicating that Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack caused Apple (AAPL) stock to drop 10%. The report first appeared on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site, which describes itself as a source of "Unedited. Unfiltered. News."

The SEC, tired of being left out of the regulatory party, has launched a few initiatives this week to punish those who are responsible for the current credit crisis: short sellers and rumormongers.

Stock Loan Traders Paid Phony Finder Fees and Received Kickbacks in Schemes Netting More Than $12 Million in Unlawful Profits

SEC Charges 4 Additional Former Officers of Nortel Networks Corporation in Financial Fraud Scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on June 29 that early results from the Penny Quoting Pilot program show lowered trading costs for retail trades. An analysis of reports from the options exchanges by the Commission's Office of Economic Analysis indicate that the Pilot has been successful in narrowing average quoted spreads, which enables investors to trade options at better prices. The reduction in spreads also has led to a reduction in payment for order flow.