Here's a great opportunity to learn about money

Could you use some help managing your money? If the answer is yes and you live in Tampa or have transportation to get there, you might want to look into classes being offered next month by Tampa Bay Saves. Dates and topics are: June 10,  Developing a Financial Plan; June 17- Evaluating Credit Offers & Credit Scores; and June 24- Using Financial Institutions & Achieving Financial Goals. The classes will be held from 5:45pm – 8:00pm. Cost is $7. Location is the Family Support & Resource Center, 7520 W. Waters Ave., Tampa. Childcare and refreshments are provided. For more information, call the Hillsborough County Extension Service at 813-744-5519 x 137. Here's the registration form.

Watch out for online job ads

Some of them are actually scams, designed to steal your identity, says the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In one case FINRA cited, the information was stolen through Craigslist job ads. FINRA offers these tips to avoid becoming a victim.

Creditors get OK to question Pearlman

Judge Arthur Briskman approved the request from Fred Lowe and Jim Lowy to question Lou Pearlman on behalf of creditors. According to the judge's order, what's known as a "Rule 2004 examination" has been approved for this Thursday and Friday, between 9 a.m. and  5 p.m. at the federal courthouse. However, it appears that a deal has been worked out to postpone the examination until after the sentencing.

Lowe and Lowy and/or their clients will have to pay any costs involved. They hope to get information that will help them in pursuing cases against others. Note: these exams are not open to the public.

Nightly Business Report launching new series on retirement readiness

In case you haven't heard (like you've been hiding under a rock somewhere), 78-million baby boomers are on the cusp of retirement. That means we'll be hearing lots about this subject. PBS' Nightly Business Report is launching a year-long series of reports called "Get Your Finances Ready for Retirement" that will appear two Mondays a month, starting May 12. The show is broadcast in the Tampa Bay area at 6:30 p.m. on WEDU. The first programs in the series are:

May 12--Getting started: What you need to consider about retirement

May 19--How much money do you need to retire?

May 26--Special Memorial Day program devoted to retirement topics, including when you should begin to collect Social Security

After they are broadcast, programs will be available on demand at the Nightly Business Report Web site. Monthly companion articles will be featured in U.S. News & World Report.

Is there a pension in your past?

My column this Sunday contains some tips on finding pensions from long-ago employers. If you or your spouse ever got a notice from an employer that you were vested in the pension plan, and you didn't receive a lump sum payout, this is something worth looking into. If you run into roadblocks, one of the best sources of helpful information is Pension Help America.

Creditors want to question Pearlman before sentencing

Jim Lowy and Frederick Lowe are asking the bankruptcy judge to authorize them to question Lou Pearlman before the sentencing. They say that after the sentencing, he won't have any incentive to cooperate, but the U.S. attorney's office is blocking them from interviewing Pearlman.

GunnAllen to pay $750,000 fine to settle charges

Regulators fined Tampa-based GunnAllen Financial Inc. $750,000 for multiple violations of securities industry rules. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said GunnAllen's lax supervision allowed its former head trader, Alexis Rivera, to defraud customers by putting profitable trades in his wife's personal account instead of the accounts of customers where they belonged. Rivera was fired in September 2005 and barred from the securities industry in December 2006. FINRA barred his supervisor, Kelley McMahon, from the industry for six months and levied a $25,000 fine.

And that wasn't all. FINRA said it found other serious violations in the investment banking department where it failed to put the stocks of its investment banking clients on a restricted list. That created the potential for misuse of insider information. Further, FINRA said GunnAllen failed to disclose a consulting contract with Richard J. Gladstone, who had been barred from the securities industry.

GunnAllen agreed to pay the fine to settle the matter and have the findings entered into the record. It did not admit or deny the allegations. Here's some of what company CEO Richard Frueh had to say:

"GunnAllen has resolved historical issues, reaffirmed its commitment to supervision and compliance and now looks forward to continuing to help our affiliates assist their clients achieve financial success."

By popular request: Here's the fake plane

Some of you have said you'd like to see the fake photo that Lou Pearlman alledgedly used to add credibility to his avaiation business. Here it is, courtesy of Alan Gross. Alan says he built the model of the plane, which was then photographed at the airport to make it look like a real plane. You don't see the tail because someone's had is holding it. Alan says he had nothing to do with the photograph and did not know that Lou was going to use his model in such a devious way.

[Photo credit: courtesy of Alan Gross]

Michael Crudele was unaware of any fraud, his lawyer says

"Michael is adamant that he was unaware this was a fraud," his Tampa attorney, James Felman, said today. "He has taken no steps to hide any of his assets and never would."

Crudele, who handled marketing for Lou Pearlman's Ponzi scheme, has been cooperating with bankruptcy trustee Soneet Kapila and will continue to do so, Felman said. He said Crudele has agreed to the continuation of a restraining order preventing him from disposing of certain assets, although it is more narrow than the one Kapila requested last week based on this motion.

Felman says the transfers Kapila cites in his motion came from Crudele's Trans Continental accounts, primarily money he had invested in Trans Continental stock. He said Crudele set up EISA accounts for his children, which were used to purchase Florida Prepaid College Funds. "He put hundreds of thousands back into the company and made no effort to withdraw it," Felman said. He said that when the company collapsed, Crudele's account was supposed to be worth $2.8-million.

More Alan Gross correspondence

Since there seems to be a lot of interest in Alan's old correspondence with the Securities and Exchange Commission, I'm posting these two responses from the SEC at his request. One is a form letter to him and the other is a letter to an attorney who apparently contacted the SEC on Alan's behalf. I think Alan does deserve credit for standing up for what he thought was right and contacting the SEC. By the way, when I visited Alan, he played his tape of Lou's old phone call for me, so I can verify its existence.

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