Breaking a securities fraud law has potentially serious consequences, whether you are a stockbroker, a financial analyst, a CEO, or a private individual. Securities fraud occurs when a person or company acts so as to illegally manipulate the investment market for personal gain. Often, we see securities fraud violations in the news when a major corporation goes bankrupt within a very short period of time, resulting in massive financial losses to investors. News coverage in recent years that involves securities fraud includes the Telecom and Enron scandals, which resulted in billions dollars of losses for investors, at the same time that corporate executives saw enormous personal financial gains. The more commonplace cases of securities fraud, however, tend to occur on a much smaller scale, and usually involve fraudulent accounting, insider trading, and misrepresentations, usually by a professional stockbroker and/or corporate entity. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD") are responsible for investigating and assessing civil fines for securities fraud, and the government, at both the state and federal level, is responsible for prosecuting violators of state and federal securities laws.