Songwriter, novelist and erstwhile investment adviser Gary Marks—also the author of investing guide Rocking Wall Street—agreed to pay $421,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he negligently misrepresented the correlation and diversification among some of the funds he managed.

The nitty-gritty, according to the SEC: Between 2005 and 2007, Mr. Marks managed several funds-of-funds and told investors that the funds weren’t correlated, when in fact a) they were and b) he “did not even know how to properly perform such an analysis.” Read More