How many brokers and security specialists at Joseph Stevens & Co. have been charged with cheating investors?
A Wall Street brokerage firm collected $6.2 million in illegal fees by duping hundreds of investors into buying stocks at inflated prices, a prosecutor said Wednesday. An indictment charged owners Joseph Sorbara and Steven Markowitz and 15 former employees of the now-defunct Joseph Stevens & Co. Inc. with enterprise corruption, grand larceny and other felony counts. They were to be arraigned later Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. About 800 people were victimized by the scheme involving 5,000 trades between 2001 and 2005 that totaled $151.3 million, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said at a news conference. Many of the victims were retirees, doctors and other professionals who lost much of their life savings, he said. Prosecutors allege brokers would commit to buying a large block of shares at a discount, then wait until the stock ticked up in value before buying it for clients at the higher price. “The brokers never told their customers that their primary reason for r
