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Investment firm to settle fraud charges with £22.5m

US investment firm F-Squared agreed to pay $35 million (£22.5m) and admit wrongdoing on Monday to settle federal regulators’ charges that it defrauded investors with false claims about financial performance.

The US securities and exchange commission (SEC) settled with F-Squared, the largest US marketer of index products using exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

ETFs trade like stocks but mirror other assets such as stock indexes or commodities.

The SEC said F-Squared falsely advertised a successful seven-year track record for its “AlphaSector” product.

In fact, the algorithm on which trading for the product was based didn’t exist during the seven-year period from 2001 to 2008, the agency said.

SEC enforcement director Andrew Ceresney said “F-Squared has admitted it misled its clients over a number of years.”

F-Squared is paying the government $30m in restitution, a $5m penalty under the settlement and also agreed to admit wrongdoing.

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