Fresh fast food strikes planned for Thursday

  Plight of the fast food worker NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Fast food protests aren't going away.

Organizers say fast food restaurant workers in 100 U.S. cities will walk off the job Thursday, as part of a continuing push to raise wages above $15 an hour in the industry and secure the right to unionize.

The movement began with a small walkout in New York City last year and has since gathered momentum. Strikes this past August drew fast food workers in 60 cities, organizers said.

The National Restaurant Association contends that the demonstrations are a "coordinated PR campaign engineered by national labor groups," and that "relatively few restaurant workers have participated" in past demonstrations.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said the events planned for Thursday "are not strikes," and consist only of outside groups "traveling to McDonald's and other outlets to stage rallies."

Industry officials have criticized the campaign, claiming increased starting wages will hold back job growth and increase prices.

The effort has drawn support from the Service Employees International Union, one of the country's largest, as well as activist groups. A MoveOn.org petition that has drawn nearly 50,000 online signatures calls on industry leaders "to pay your workers $15 an hour so they can make ends meet and Americans can stop paying for the hidden costs of poverty wages."

In Congress, a group of 53 lawmakers sent letters Wednesday expressing support for higher wages to McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Wendy's (WEN), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Burger King (BKW) and Yum! Brands (YUM, Fortune 500), which operates KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

"We are proud to stand with workers who continue to fight for an economy that works for everyone," the officials ! wrote.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company is "committed to providing our employees with opportunities to succeed," offering competitive pay, training and the chance for advancement. Wendy's said it was proud to give entry-level employees "the opportunity to learn important business and personal skills so they can either grow with us or move on to another career."

Domino's rejected the "fast food" label, and said only three of its employees had taken part in the August protests, none of whom were scheduled to work at the time. The pizza maker said its delivery drivers make more than minimum wage with tips included, and that it serves as a second job for many employees who work only evenings and weekends.

"90 percent of our U.S. franchisees started as delivery drivers or at in-store positions," as did many other managers and corporate staff members, spokesman Tim McIntyre said. "We are a company of opportunity."

The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Obama also called out the plight of fast food workers in a speech Wednesday, saying they "work their tails off and are still living at or barely above poverty." He said it was "past time" to raise the minimum wage.

A report released in October by the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center and the University of Illinois found that 52% of families of fast food workers receive some form of public assistance. The report estimated that this aid carries a $7 billion annual price tag for taxpayers.

The median pay for the fast food workers nationwide is just over $9 an hour, or about $18,500 a year. That's roughly $4,500 lower than Census Bureau's poverty income threshold level of $23,000 for a family of four.

The rallies planned for Thursday follow protests last week at a number of Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500)locations, where workers and activists have called on the company to grant workers more hours and pay full-time emp! loyees at! least $25,000 a year.

2 Houston Firms Accused of Illicit Trading in Client Accounts

“We have a different view of what it means to be entrusted with your future.”

Those ambiguous words posted on the homepage of a Houston brokerage, meant to assure wary investors, may have a quite opposite meaning if charges of self-dealing with millions in client funds, announced Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, are ultimately upheld.

The SEC announced administrative proceedings against two Houston investment advisor firms and four executives — Parallax Investments and its owner, John P. Bott II, and chief compliance officer, F. Robert Falkenberg; and against Tri-Star Advisors and its CEO, William T. Payne, and president, Jon C. Vaughan.

In a statement accompanying the two SEC orders, the commission says the two firms engineered “thousands of principal transactions through their affiliated brokerage firm without informing their clients.”

A principal transaction essentially means the investment professional is trading on his own behalf with the client. Because of the inherent conflict of interest, the advisor is required to disclose his financial interest in the transaction and obtain the client’s consent.

The SEC says that Parallax and Tri-Star fulfilled neither of these requirements before Parallax’s Bott initiated and executed at least 2,000 trades on behalf of uninformed clients, and Tri-Star supplied mortgage-backed bonds from its own inventory to the Parallax accounts. Tri-Star’s Payne and Vaughan reaped more than $2 million for the illicit trades, and Bott garnered nearly half the $1.9 million in sales credits for the transactions, the SEC charges.

Over the same 2009-2011 period, Tri-Star — from whose website the above quote is taken — performed the same hustle with its own clients, according to the SEC, with Payne and Vaughan receiving nearly half of $1.9 million in sales credits on these transactions.

While both firms are accused of violating the principal transaction and compliance provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the SEC is also leveling a third charge against Parallax for violating the “custody rule” requiring firms to maintain certain standards when maintaining client funds or securities.

To custody client assets, a firm must either undergo a surprise annual SEC exam or it may elect a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-registered audit, delivering results to clients within 120 days after the fiscal year ends.

The SEC order charges Bott and Parallax’s chief compliance officer, F. Robert Falkenberg, with violating these rules. The firm did not obtain audits of its private fund Parallax Capital Partners LP after 2010, and the two executives knowingly retained an auditor not registered with PCAOB to perform its 2010 audit.

Attempts to reach the both firms’ executives were met with a referral to the parties’ attorney, from whom ThinkAdvisor has not heard back at press time.

Of note, the call to Parrallax rang through, automatically, to Tri-Star, seemingly indicating a strong affiliation between the two firms in terms of day-to-day activities.

Moreover, their websites show they are located at the same street address, though each lists a separate suite on the ninth floor.

In a Texas state disclosure supplementing the firm’s Form ADV and found on Parallax’s website, Bott discloses a 40% ownership interest in Tri-Star.

Tri-Star’s website, the same one promising a different view of what it means to be entrusted, also leads on its home page and several other pages with a prominently displayed quote from the eminent American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It reads:

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”

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Check out SEC, FINRA Enforcement: Advisor to NFL, NBA Players Barred Amid Fraud Case on ThinkAdvisor.