WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Association of Securities Dealers Tuesday said it reached a settlement with a former research analyst at Banc of America Securities charged with issuing research thatcontradicted his personal opinions.
Andrew Hamerling was suspended from working for an NASD-registered firm for nine months and given a $125,000 fine payable only if he returns to an NASD- registered company.
Under the settlement, Hamerling neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing, the NASD said.
He currently works for a hedge fund in New York, which is not required to register with the association.
Reached at his office in New York, Hamerling declined to comment on the allegations, referring questions to his attorney who said, “Under the terms of this settlement, Andrew Hamerling will not pay a penny, which is how it should be.”
Among the allegations that the NASD made against Hamerling was that he recommended in a private e-mail that a hedge-fund manager sell SBC Communications Inc. short because it had “nothing fundamentally sound going for it,” while publicly issuing a “buy” recommendation for the stock with a $51 target price in September 2001.
The stock was last at that level in January 2001.
The NASD found that Hamerling didn’t publish the negative research because he was concerned that SBC wouldn’t attend an investor conference organized by his employer, and that SBC would deny him access to information.
The NASD also alleged that Hamerling gave advance notice of his stock ratings, price targets, and research to representatives of the companies that he covered, in violation of the NASD’s rules as well as Banc of America’s own internal policies.
Mary L. Schapiro, vice chairman of NASD, said in a statement that the enforcement action was part of its efforts to police research analysts after 10 Wall Street firms settled allegations of biased stock ratings for $1.4 billion in April.
