The SEC announced on Friday that it has commenced a $267 million Fair Fund distribution to mutual funds and mutual fund shareholders who were harmed by late trading and market timing that occurred through Bear Stearns. Bear Stearns was charged by the SEC in a 2006 enforcement action.
Friday’s disbursement of more than $216 million went out to approximately 761,000 shareholders who were harmed by the wrongdoing, and to the asset bases of more than 1,000 affected mutual funds. The SEC stated that the distribution would ultimately return more than $267 million to harmed mutual funds and shareholders before the end of 2009.
Dick D’Anna, Director of the SEC’s Office of Collections and Distributions, stated that since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, the SEC has returned more than $5 billion in lost funds to harmed investors.
