[JURIST] Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC [official website] announced Putnam Investments [corporate website] has been ordered to pay an additional $43 million in fines as part of its punishment for an improper trading scandal. The announcement came after an independent consultant found the trading scandals cost investors in Putnam funds $4.4 million. Read the SEC press release. Reuters has more.

In other news…

• The SEC is investigating various brokers to determine whether they are giving big clients inside information to internal strategy calls. The information allows the clients to gather confidential trading information which is easy to profit from. The investigation is still broad with no single firm yet named. The Street.com has more.
• The SEC unanimously adopted a rule today which allows mutual funds to hold intermediary traders more accountable for dealings with abusive market timers. The rule allows, but does not require funds to impose penalties for abusive trading. Reuters has more.
• Money manager Nuveen Investments Inc. [corporate website] announced the SEC has started an probe into its affiliate Symphony Asset Management over alleged overcharges on performance fees. Reuters has more.
• The SEC is giving smaller US corporations and foreign corporations an extra year to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [text, PDF]. These firms have until July 15, 2006, to meet a requirement to file reports demonstrating the strength of their internal financial controls. Read the SEC press release. Read the final SEC rule. AP has more.
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Bank of America Corp. [corporate website] announced it will pay $460.5 million to settle class-action lawsuits brought against it by former shareholders of WorldCom. Read the Bank of America press release. Bloomberg has more.
• Russian gas giant Gazprom's [corporate website] proposed merger with state oil firm Rosneft [corporate website] has hit a snag as the two companies have differing versions on the deal. Rosneft indicated it would stay independent from Gazprom which directly contradicts Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller's version. The deal was part of a government plan to own a majority stake in Gazprom thereby leading to restrictions on foreign purchases of its shares being lifted. Reuters has more.

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