A recent string of cases in which derivatives and complex products harmed investors across market sectors have seen fines handed out.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Allianz Global Investors US (AGI US) and three former senior portfolio managers with ‘a massive fraudulent scheme that concealed the immense downside risks’ of its options trading strategy Structured Alpha. According to the regulators, after the Covid 19 market crash of March 2020 exposed the fraudulent scheme, the strategy lost billions of dollars. The Allianz subsidiary which marketed and sold the strategy to appro