NEWARK
– Richard Barry, Chief of Enforcement
for the New Jersey Bureau of Securities,
has been honored with the prestigious
NASAA Enforcement Award for 2006 by the
North American Securities Administrators
Association.
NASAA is the oldest international organization
devoted to investor protection. Its membership
includes the securities administrators
of all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Canada and Mexico. Each year, the association
presents a single NASAA Enforcement Award
to recognize outstanding work in the area
of securities enforcement and investor
protection.
“Rick
Barry is a tremendous asset, not just
for the New Jersey Bureau of Securities
but for the cause of investor protection
and fair and open securities markets,”
said Franklin L. Widmann, Chief of the
New Jersey Bureau of Securities and past
President of NASAA. “He is a team
player who has aggressively pursued investigations
involving the most pressing issues impacting
the securities industry and investors.
It is fitting that his fellow securities
regulators should award him this high
honor.”
Barry, 54, a resident of Point Pleasant,
has served as Chief of Enforcement for
the New Jersey Bureau of Securities since
1986. In 1979, after a decade of traveling
the U.S. and Caribbean surfing, he joined
the Bureau as an Investigator. He worked
one year as a trading surveillance investigator
for the New York Futures Exchange between
1983 and 1984, but returned to the Bureau
in 1984 as Chief Investigator. Barry is
a graduate of Monmouth University.
In two decades as Chief of Enforcement
for the New Jersey Bureau of Securities,
Barry has spearheaded many major investigations.
He led investigations of penny stock fraud,
including the State’s investigation
of F.D. Roberts Securities, Inc., involving
the first use of the State’s civil
racketeering statute in a securities case,
and its investigation of Robert Brennan,
whose high-profile bankruptcy fraud trial,
which led to his imprisonment in 2001,
was a direct outgrowth of two separate
civil matters brought by the New Jersey
Bureau of Securities and the SEC. Barry
also investigated John Natale and Cambridge
Capital Partners, a $70 million hedge
fund fraud.
In the past two years alone, he led investigations
that resulted in settlement payments to
New Jersey totaling $68 million, including
a $5 million settlement with American
Express Financial Advisors and four record-setting
cases involving allegations of market
timing: a $25 million settlement with
UBS Financial Services Inc., an $18 million
settlement with Allianz Dresdner Asset
Management of America, a $10 million settlement
with Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner &
Smith Inc., and a $10 million settlement
with Canary Capital Partners and managing
principal Edward J. Stern.
Barry also has served on numerous committees
of NASAA since 1987, including the NASAA
Broker Dealer Committee, Market Manipulation
Committee and Enforcement Committee.
The award plaque presented to Barry on
January 8 at NASAA’s Winter Enforcement
Conference declares that he has dedicated
his life to securities regulation and
has “consistently sought to protect
New Jersey’s residents from securities
fraud and abuse by making essential contributions
to major investigations on cases of significance
to New Jersey and state securities regulators.”
