NYSE Floor Broker Investigation Grows

Federal prosecutors and securities regulators believe that as many as 64 New York Stock Exchange floor brokers may have illegally shared profits with their trading customers, people close to the investigations said Wednesday.

That means that up to 13% of the 500 independent brokers on the exchange floor may have engaged in unauthorized trading, raising the specter that more people could be charged in the ongoing investigation of the floor brokers.

Last year, eight floor brokers, as well as the Oakford Corp. brokerage and two Oakford principals, were criminally charged with making more than $11.1 million in trading profits from 1993 to 1996 by misusing the floor brokers’ ringside seats on the exchange floor.