The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Heartland Advisors Inc. with fraud, the first time a bond fund has been implicated in the spreading scandal engulfing the $7 trillion mutual fund industry. Heartland mutual funds company was charged in connection with a probe of the mispricing of high-yield bond mutual fund shares, also known as junk bonds. The SEC said in a statement that it has charged Heartland, its chief executive William Nasgovitz, 11 other company officials and others for “misrepresentations, mispricing and insider trading in two high yield bond funds.”
The SEC said it brought civil fraud charges against CEO Nasgovitz, chief operating officer Paul Beste, general counsel Jilaine Bauer, senior vice president of trading Kevin Clark, treasurer Kenneth Della and portfolio manager Thomas Conlin in connection with “fraudulently pricing bonds in the funds.” The SEC said it also charged Nasgovitz, Bauer, portfolio manager Gregory Winston, Della and Raymond Krueger, a friend and client of Nasgovitz, with insider trading in fund shares.