Inside these posts: SEC

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Motorola to pump $3.5B into SpinCo

Motorola Inc. plans to spin off its mobile phone and television set-top box businesses with $3.5 billion in cash when the Schaumburg-based company splits in two early next year.

Motorola SpinCo Holdings Corp., the entity created in preparation of the separation, disclosed the capitalization amount in a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Get the full story »

Carl Icahn buys more Motorola shares

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is continuing to buy up shares of Motorola Inc., disclosing his second batch of purchases in a week. Get the full story »

SEC warns agencies against deceptive ratings

Federal regulators are warning credit rating agencies that they could face civil fraud charges for giving inaccurate ratings to investments.

Icahn buys more Motorola shares, has 10.6% stake

Activist investor Carl Icahn has upped his stake in Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. to about 10.6 percent from a 9.99 stake he disclosed earlier this month, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Get the full story »

Investors get more power to nominate directors

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved changes that make it easier for shareholders to nominate directors of public companies.

The 3-2 vote allows groups that own at least 3 percent of a company’s stock to put their nominees for board seats on the annual proxy ballot sent to all shareholders. The new financial overhaul law enacted last month gave the SEC the authority to make the change. Get the full story »

SEC charges 2 with insider trading on BHP-Potash

Federal regulators say two Spanish investors made illegal profits of $1.1 million by trading on secret information about BHP Billiton PLC’s bid to acquire Potash Corp. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Juan Jose Fernandez Garcia and Luis Martin Caro Sanchez bought investments that became valuable after the mining company offered $38.5 billion to take over fertilizer maker Potash. Garcia heads the research arm of a bank that was advising BHP on the deal.

SEC: Mozilo OK’d Countrywide preferential loans

Federal regulators say former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo personally approved mortgages for favored borrowers that violated the company’s policies and lending standards.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had previously accused Mozilo of civil fraud and illegal insider trading. Now, the agency says Mozilo played a direct role in a program for preferential borrowers that has been the focus of congressional ethics inquiries. Get the full story »

Hyatt changes Penny Pritzker’s board status

Penny Pritzker, one of America’s richest and most powerful businesswomen, is no longer considered an independent director of Hyatt Hotels Corp., the publicly traded company that her family controls.

Hyatt disclosed that change in its proxy statement in late April, when the list of independent directors no longer included the 51-year-old Pritzker, who was national finance chair for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and leads several companies that are part of her family’s business empire. Get the full story »

Amcore Financial files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Troubled lender Amcore Financial Inc AMFI.PK filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday to liquidate its assets, it said in a filing.

Amcore Financial, which has been in talks with its largest stakeholders, intends to file a plan of liquidation by August 24 and continues to operate its business as a debtor-in-possession, it said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Get the full story »

SEC adds rulemaking actions to e-mail alerts

The Securities and Exchange Commission has introduced e-mail alerts that will allow the public to be notified when new feedback is posted on its Web site about rulemaking for the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.

It has had e-mail alerts for a year on other matters and has since sent 11 million updates to nearly 14,000 subscribers. Get the full story »

New Jersey settles SEC securities fraud case

The state of New Jersey has settled federal civil fraud charges of failing to inform bond investors that it had not met obligations to its largest pension plans, federal regulators said Wednesday.

The SEC declined comment on whether a similar investigation is under way in Illinois. The pension system here is the most underfunded in the nation, according to the Pew Center for the States, with only about half the money needed to cover more than $60 billion in liabilities. Get the full story »

SEC to meet next week on proxy access rules

Securities regulators will meet on August 25 to consider giving shareholders more power to nominate company directors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday posted on its website an agenda for the meeting next week, in which it will consider whether to adopt the reforms, a contentious issue known as “proxy access.” Get the full story »

SEC probing insider trading at General Growth

The Securities and Exchange Commission has started a formal probe of possible insider trading by current and former officers and directors of mall owner General Growth Properties Inc.

General Growth, which has operated under bankruptcy protection since April 2009 and plans to exit later this year, disclosed the probe in its bankruptcy case Tuesday and in its quarterly report filed with the SEC last week. Get the full story »

GM IPO to have 4 lead underwriters

General Motors Co. will have four lead underwriters on its IPO, according to a source familiar with the situation.

They will be Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, the source said. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley helped the automaker prepare the paperwork for the IPO. Get the full story »

Alleged bond scam financed cars, porn, and more

About 120 Illinois and California residents thought they were investing more than $20 million in Turkish Eurobonds when, in fact, a Lisle man and others were spending the money on luxury automobiles, homes, vacations and online pornography, the Illinois Department of Insurance alleged Tuesday.

The state’s action follows a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March in which the federal regulator said the group was using the investors’ money to also buy a stamp collection, and also invest in “the cryogenic preservation of umbilical cord stem cells.” Get the full story »