Times Wins Hancock Award for Series on Brokerage Fraud

The Los Angeles Times has been named a winner of the 1992 John Hancock Financial Services Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism.

The award for newspapers with circulation above 300,000 went to Scot Paltrow of the Los Angeles Times Business staff for his investigative series, “Investors at Risk.” The series documented widespread fraud against small investors by brokerage firms.

It was the second consecutive year and the eighth time in 26 years that The Times has won the award. Last year’s award was for the paper’s coverage of the Bank of America/Security Pacific merger.

This year’s other winners include: the Atlantic, for a magazine article by William Sternberg about why the auditing system in the United States has failed to protect investors and taxpayers; Business Week, for a special issue called “Reinventing America,” written by G. David Wallace and a team of writers; the (Ft. Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel, for a series by reporter Fred Schulte documenting telemarketing schemes; the (Lakeland, Fla.) Ledger, for a five-part series about a fungicide that could destroy Florida crops; the Wall Street Journal, for a series of advertising columns by Joanne Lipman, and a team of Hartford Courant writers for its coverage of layoffs at United Technologies Corp.

A $5,000 prize for is awarded in each of the seven categories.