Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says investment firm Morgan Stanley will pay up to $4.2 million to partially reimburse customers who have suffered “inordinate losses” because a portfolio manager allegedly used high-risk investments for people who hadn’t agreed to them.
Hosemann tells The Associated Press that the firm agreed to resolve an investigation by the securities division of his office.
Hosemann says 259 accounts from 15 states were affected. He says 194 accounts were in Mississippi and 25 in Louisiana. Others were in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
In a consent order released today, the firm neither admits nor denies the division’s allegations about conduct by Steven Wyatt, who worked as portfolio manager in its Ridgeland, Mississippi, office, starting in 2007.
