WACHOVIA STOCKBROKER MISCONDUCT

Wachovia Securities was once a large stockbrokerage firm that swallowed up A.G. Edwards, and was then shortly itself swallowed up by Wells Fargo, combining into the Wells Fargo Advisors stockbrokerage firm. Wachovia was part of this once large and international banking and investment firm. Wachovia tended to have fewer but larger offices, with increased supervision. After the purchase of A.G. Edwards, Wachovia perhaps never really had a full opportunity to integrate all of the A. G. Edwards systems into its way of doing things, before it was purchased by Wells Fargo. Wachovia itself had been the surviving name given to the purchase by First Union a few years before. Wachovia had purchased Prudential’s units. Makes one wonder who made money on this, in addition to the printers.

Prudential Securities itself was a leader in scandal and investment issues, really focused on limited partnership, the alternative investments going back to the 1980’s. Those sales led to huge sanctions and fines, and damaged the Prudential name to this day. The sale to Wachovia was not surprising. Wachovia Securities made billions of dollars in profits, until it did not.