Cox Securities Shut Down in Fraud Settlement

Cox Securities Inc., the top producing floor broker on the Pacific Exchange in 1997, was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday as part of a settlement of regulatory fraud charges.

The SEC alleged that the Los Angeles-based firm, owned by Edward R. Cox, created more than 1,000 false trades in which the firm shifted $1.5 million in trading losses to 53 other broker-dealers and floor specialists.

Those trades involved at least 31 securities from November 1996 to March 1998, the SEC said

Cox, 51, also agreed to be barred permanently as a broker-dealer. Under the settlement, he neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

Cox Securities has been suspended from working on the Pacific Exchange since early 1999.