Securities fraud

American Criminal Law Review, March, 2002 by Steven Amchen

I. INTRODUCTION

Seven statutes regulate Federal securities transactions. (1) Congress passed the most important of these, the Securities Act of 1933 ("1933 Act") and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("1934 Act"), in response to fraud in securities markets and a perceived lack of public information about the stock markets. (2) The aim of the statutes is to ensure vigorous market competition by mandating full and fair disclosure of all material information in the marketplace. (3)

Practitioners should note that this article is limited to federal securities law. Any securities law issue must be analyzed in conjunction with applicable state "blue sky" (4) laws that regulate the offering and sale of securities in each state. (5)

II. ELEMENTS OF THE...