NASD Quickly Fines Piper Jaffray for Research Improprieties

The NASD has fined Piper Jaffray and an investment banker $300,000 for alleged conflicts of interests and abuses associated with its threatening to drop research coverage of a biotechnology company if the company did not allow Piper Jaffray to manage the company's stock offering as the lead underwriter.

Observers applauded the penalty not so much for its size but for the speed at which it was imposed. The penalty comes in the midst of a host of allegations of improprieties against Wall Street brokerage firms.

Source: Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2002