Former Invesco CEO Offers to Settle Charges

The former chief executive of Invesco Funds in Denver has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle civil fraud charges relating to improper trading of the firm’s mutual funds, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Raymond Cunningham also agreed to be banned from the industry for two years.

The news came a day after Colorado Atty. Gen. Ken Salazar said Invesco and its sister company, AIM Advisors Inc., would pay more than $450 million in penalties, restitution and lowered fees to settle allegations that they allowed favored investors to profit from short-term trading of their funds at the expense of other investors.

Cunningham’s settlement offer is to the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, his attorneys said. The SEC and Spitzer’s office declined to comment.

Invesco and AIM Advisors both are owned by London-based Amvescap.

Separately on Wednesday, Amvescap said the Invesco brand name would be dropped for the firm’s U.S. retail funds.

Invesco, a name that goes back to the 1930s, still would be used for institutional and worldwide customers, AIM spokesman Ivy McLemore said.

The Invesco name was hit hard after the technology bubble burst in 2000 and some of the company’s funds plummeted in value. Before that it was a hot entity. The company’s name is emblazoned on Denver’s professional football stadium in a contract that runs until 2021.