Marketplace's New York bureau chief Michelle Brier has details. Investigators say the victims were cheated by unscrupulous brokers selling worthless stocks. In some cases the brokers were unlicensed and bribed other dealers to get clients or traded on customer accounts without permission. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission, says cases like this are becoming all too commonplace, thanks to gains in the stock market.
Crime goes to where the money is.
They figured prominently in previous stock scams. Investigators say that points to how widespread investment fraud has become. In New York, I'm Michelle Brier for Marketplace. Eight years ago this week Los Angeles erupted in civil unrest, following not-guilty verdicts in the trial of police officers accused of beating a black motorist. Today, in one of the hardest hit neighborhoods, South-Central, developers broke ground on the area's biggest new retail project.