The U.S. Government indicted 15 specialists at the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday for allegedly using fraud to cheat customers out of millions of dollars.
Specialists keep the market operating smoothly by matching buy and sell orders for customers of the stocks they oversee.
They are supposed to help customers get the best prices for stocks, but the 15 are accused of putting buy and sell orders from their own firms ahead of those from customers.
Fraud convictions could bring millions of dollars in fines and up to 20 years in prison.
U.S. regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission, also censured the stock exchange for failing to stop the alleged fraud. The NYSE agreed to pay $20 million to finance regulatory audits to prevent future problems.
Some information for this report provided by Bloomberg, AP, AFP, and Reuters.