Defunct Brokerage Ordered to Pay $7.9 Million

U.S. District Judge William D. Keller ordered now-defunct Beverly Hills brokerage Lazar Frederick & Co. to pay $7.9 million in conjunction with allegations the firm raised about $35 million from 1993 through 1995 in a Ponzi scheme. The judge also ordered Betty Ann Rubin, Lazar’s former president, to pay $346,410. Without admitting or denying guilt, Lazar agreed to a permanent injunction from future sales of fraudulent securities. In 1995, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that Lazar Frederick fraudulently sold securities in 29 oil and gas limited partnerships in a scheme that paid earlier investors with money from later investors. In 1995, dozens of FBI agents raided the company’s Beverly Hills office.