Brokerage pays investors

In one of the largest awards against a broker brought by individual shareholders, an Ohio jury has ordered Prudential Securities to pay compensation of US$11.7mn and US$250mn in punitive damages. The claimant investors argued that the company had engaged in unauthorised trading in their accounts. An oddity is that, at a time of market turbulence, a Prudential stock broker sold the investments to protect them and neither the broker nor the firm profited from this. Prudential will seek to have the verdict set aside.