LITTLE ROCK — State agency fines N.Y. securities firm
An unsolicited call to an Arkansas Securities Department senior examiner in 2011 led to the department’s decision to approve a consent order against a New York financial securities firm and its agent, Gregory Thomas Dean.
Dean made a random call to the examiner’s home in September 2011. The examiner’s phone number was on the federal Do Not Call Registry. For a securities agent to call numbers on the registry is a violation of the state’s securities law.
While investigating Dean and the securities firm, J.D. Nicholas & Associates of Syosset, N.Y., the department discovered that the firm, which operates under the name A&F Financial Securities Inc., charged Arkansas customers a $65 postage and handling fee and improperly used the money to pay commissions.
Between March 2008 and November 2011, the firm received $17,875 in fees but used only $3,347 to cover postage.
The department ordered the company and Dean to stop violating Arkansas laws and fined it $17,500.
Attempts to contact Dean were unsuccessful.
- David Smith
Women’s group to honor Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville is among the 32 companies selected by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council for its 14th annual list of America’s top corporations for women’s business enterprises.
The organization says it selects companies that have “world-class programs that level the playing field for women’s business enterprises to compete for corporate business.”
The top corporations are to be honored at the council’s Summit & Salute to Women’s Business Enterprises March 13-14 in Baltimore.
“Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of our top corporations, women’s businesses are generating strategies and solutions for meeting the fast-changing needs of today’s marketplace,” Pamela Prince-Eason, the council’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
Other retailers that made the list include Macy’s, Office Depot and Target.
- Steve Painter
Arkansas Index up 0.94 to 263.54
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, climbed 0.94 to 263.54 Friday.
Twelve stocks advanced, three declined and one was unchanged. P.A.M. Transportation Services rose 2.3 percent on only 200 shares traded while Arkansas Best dropped 3.9 percent in light trading.
For the week, winners and losers were evenly divided. USA Truck climbed 5.8 percent for the week.
Dillard’s lost 5.5 percent for the week.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 29 on 03/02/2013