Putnam Investment Management and two of its former portfolio managers today were named in separate complaints claiming securities fraud. The SEC filed complaints against Putnam and one-time managers Justin M. Scott and Omid Kamshad in U.S. District Court in Boston, claiming the former managers used non-public information to engage in "excessive short-term trading" of the Putnam funds they ran. The SEC also filed a legal complaint against Putnam for failing to disclose the self-dealing transactions to the funds or the fund boards.
Also, William F. Galvin, Massachusetts state secretary, filed a civil lawsuit against Putnam and Messrs. Kamshad and Scott. Mr. Galvin said Putnam managers were market timing their own funds as recently as July; Putnam had said it discovered four cases of managers market timing their own funds and two cases of managers market timing other Putnam funds more than three years ago, and put a stop to it. Putnam officials weren't immediately available for comment.
Mr. Galvin said he will brief Timothy P. Cahill, state treasurer, on the charges before Thursday's meeting of the $29 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Boston, concerning the $1.7 billion Putnam manages for the system.
