Smith Barney Inc

The largest shareholder of Smith Barney Inc.--a group of wealthy Mideast investors--has put up for sale its 22% stake in the closely held holding company for Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. A spokesman for the securities firm said he didn't know the circumstances surrounding the sale or the amount sought by the group.

Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney agreed to resolve sex-bias claims by female brokers who said the company continued to discriminate against women after a 1997 sexual-harassment settlement. The monetary terms weren't revealed in a document disclosing the settlement and filed Monday in San Francisco federal court. The suit was brought in 2005, originally by four female brokers who claimed that Smith Barney steered accounts to their male counterparts, making it harder for women to earn commissions.

Man Charged in Brokerage Client List Case: John Greer has been indicted on charges of trying to extort $5 million from Smith Barney Inc. in exchange for returning a confidential list containing the names of the brokerage's 650,000 clients. Greer is accused of trying to sell the stolen microfiche list of Smith Barney customers and their personal account information to a Smith Barney broker in Scottsdale, Ariz., in late January. Smith Barney, a unit of Travelers Group Inc.

In arguments before the California Supreme Court on Thursday, Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney brokerage unit defended tape-recording phone calls with California customers without their consent, saying the state's law requiring their approval doesn't apply in other states. Smith Barney said employees in Georgia who recorded conversations with Californians were bound only by Georgia law, which requires the consent of only one party.

Smith Barney Served Amended Lawsuit: The amended suit by current and former female employees expands the sexual discrimination and sexual harassment claims against the brokerage. Twenty women in 10 states, including California, have joined three New York women as plaintiffs in the new suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. They allege they were subjected to lewd language, unwelcome touching and employment practices that denied them opportunities and privileges allowed to men.

Smith Barney Inc. and lawyers for women who sued the New York-based company alleging sex discrimination proposed an amended settlement to the federal judge who rejected their previous agreement. The nation's No. 2 brokerage offered to let the judge, rather than an arbitrator, decide disputes over how money for Smith Barney's affirmative action program for women should be spent.

A National Assn. of Securities Dealers arbitration panel ordered Smith Barney Inc. to pay $1.325 million to a former broker that it dismissed because of a disability. It's the third time in two weeks that the brokerage, a unit of New York-based Travelers Group Inc., has been forced to pay to resolve charges of wrongdoing. Michael Wright of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

To settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by female workers, Smith Barney Inc. has agreed to resolve future sex-discrimination complaints through an outside mediator, establish an unlimited fund to pay winning claims and set hiring quotas. "This is the most expansive diversity program that we will see in corporate America," plaintiff attorney Linda Friedman said at a hearing in federal court in New York.

Donna Manwarren, a high school graduate, considers herself a homemaker, not a sophisticated investor. A stack of blue-chip stocks she inherited from her great-aunt 20 years ago sat in a bank safety deposit box for 18 years, growing in value to nearly $1 million and generating $40,000 a year in income, said her lawyer, William R. Hart of Santa Ana.

Smith Barney Inc., which has struggled to expand its securities and investment banking empire overseas, is reportedly holding talks with London-based S.G. Warburg Group about a possible merger. The largest British investment bank has been the subject of takeover speculation since late December, when a planned merger with New York-based Morgan Stanley & Co. collapsed amid a dispute about the value of Warburg's investment management company, Mercury Asset Management.

Citigroup Inc. said its Smith Barney unit hired Ed Kerschner, formerly of UBS, as its U.S. chief investment officer. UBS said in July that Kerschner would leave at the end of 2003 as chief global strategist. He had worked for 21 years at Paine Webber, which UBS bought in 2000. Kerschner was a runner-up in 2002 in Institutional Investor magazine's survey of the top U.S. Wall Street strategists. From Bloomberg News

Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney fired four brokers Thursday for rapid trading of mutual fund shares as state regulators said they might file more charges against firms and investors involved in improper transactions. Smith Barney made the dismissals for "inappropriate behavior related to market timing" of mutual funds, said spokeswoman Susan Thomson, who wouldn't name the brokers.

Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney unit was fined $1 million by the New York Stock Exchange for failing to supervise brokers who encouraged WorldCom Inc. employees to borrow money to buy stock in the now-bankrupt telecom firm when it was flying high. NYSE spokesman Richard Adamonis confirmed the penalty, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing for Michael Grace, a former Smith Barney branch manager in Atlanta.

The once-vaunted Salomon name disappears quietly today as Citigroup Inc. officially drops the Salomon Smith Barney moniker for its investment bank. Corporate and investment banking activities will now fall under the umbrella of the unit's Citigroup parent, a Citigroup spokesman said. Salomon Smith Barney wealth management and equity research functions will operate under "Smith Barney," as they have since October, when Citigroup announced the separation of the units.

A federal judge on Friday approved a unique settlement of the sex bias case against Salomon Smith Barney, allowing the investment house to close an ugly chapter in its treatment of women. Although U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley was skeptical about the plan's fairness during a long hearing earlier this week, lawyers for Smith Barney and a large group of plaintiffs were successful in changing her view. Smith Barney, now Salomon Smith Barney, is a unit of Travelers Group Inc.

Smith Barney Inc. and lawyers for women who sued the New York-based company alleging sex discrimination proposed an amended settlement to the federal judge who rejected their previous agreement. The nation's No. 2 brokerage offered to let the judge, rather than an arbitrator, decide disputes over how money for Smith Barney's affirmative action program for women should be spent.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has started proceedings against a former Smith Barney broker accused of misdirecting checks totaling $245,459 from at least 22 customers. In its administrative proceedings against Kerrigan Sean Weber, 51, the SEC accused him of allegedly misdirecting about 30 checks from 22 customers from June 1989 through November 1993.

Two Orange County brokers have been suspended by a federal securities regulator for allegedly violating broker-dealer rules. The enforcement arm of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, which regulates the brokerage profession, suspended Glenn A. Dove of Sunset Beach for 15 days and fined Nicholas Mark Ellis of Irvine $20,000. Neither Dove nor Ellis admitted any wrongdoing in settling the disciplinary actions, which were released Monday by NASD Regulation Inc.