Administration September 9, 2006

Legg Mason Reaches Settlement for Late Trading Charge

September 21, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Legg Mason Wood Walker has reached a settlement for charges that it processed mutual fund orders after regular trading hours.
Reported by

Reuters reports that the broker-dealer was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with processing more than 18,000 mutual fund orders after the market close using the particular day’s net asset value.   The orders were made between September 2002 and October 2003.

Legg Mason agreed to pay $1 million to settle the charges and neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing, according to Reuters.   In addition, the SEC statement said the company agreed to a censure and to take remedial actions.

Federal and state authorities have been carrying out a wide ranging mutual fund industry probe that has focused on late trading, market timing and certain sales practices.

More information about the company is at http://www.leggmason.com/ .

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