Bulletin # 2327
Week Ending September 26, 2008

This bulletin constitutes the only official notification you will receive from this office concerning any of the following applications. Any observations you may have are solicited. Any comments should be in writing to Howard F. Pitkin, Banking Commissioner, at the Connecticut Department of Banking, 260 Constitution Plaza, Hartford, CT 06103-1800 or via E-mail. Written comments will be considered only if they are received within ten days from the date of this bulletin.

The Securities and Business Investments Division, in conjunction with the Securities Advisory Council to the Department, is sponsoring its 20th annual Securities Forum conference on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut.  A timely and outstanding agenda of panel presentations, featuring expert speakers, will help financial industry professionals keep abreast of current and evolving regulatory developments.  Stephen A. Ross, Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will deliver the keynote address.  With more than 35 years of research and teaching to his credit, Dr. Ross has had a major impact on the field of finance, and has authored more than 100 related articles.  Among other things, he invented the Arbitrage Pricing Theory and conducted cutting edge studies in the areas of financial derivatives and interest rate models.  Models developed by Dr. Ross and his coworkers are now standards for pricing in major securities trading firms.  Dr. Ross is also the Chief Investment Officer and Principal of Ross Institutional Investors, LLC, a firm managing portfolios of alternative investments, and the Chairman of Compensation Valuation, Inc., a leading provider of option valuation services.  Dr. Ross is on the board of directors of the Freddie Mac where he chairs the Finance and Capital Deployment Committee.  The registration fee (which includes materials and luncheon) is $70 per person, but if you register by September 26, 2008, you qualify for the Early Bird discount of $60 per person.  Multiple attendees from the same firm also pay a discounted rate of $60.  Download a registration form and read the planned agenda. 

On August 28, 2008, the Banking Commissioner entered a Consent Order with respect to Michael James Maiure of Bethpage, New York.  The respondent, who was formerly associated with the securities brokerage firm Great Eastern Securities, Inc., had been the subject of a February 6, 2008 Order to Cease and Desist, Notice of Intent to Fine and Notice of Right to Hearing.  The Order to Cease and Desist and Notice of Intent to Fine had alleged that, on or about May 17, 2006, and while associated with Great Eastern Securities, Inc., the respondent sold shares of Document Security Systems Inc. to at least one Connecticut investor at a time when the respondent was not registered as an agent of the firm under the Connecticut Uniform Securities Act.  The Order to Cease and Desist had become permanent on February 26, 2008 since the respondent had failed to request a hearing on its allegations.

In entering the Consent Order, the Commissioner ascertained that Maiure had not received the Order to Cease and Desist and Notice of Intent to Fine since he was away on active military training between January 7, 2008 and March 4, 2008.  Accordingly, the Consent Order rescinded the Order to Cease and Desist which had previously become permanent.  Pursuant to the Consent Order, the respondent also agreed to pay a $500 fine.

       Dated:  Tuesday, September 30, 2008