Career moves

Ohio became the first state to level a civil fraud suit against a major servicer, claiming the company misled courts in hundreds of foreclosure cases by filing fraudulent affidavits.

Solar installer SPG Solar has formed a new structured finance group. SPG’s new group will be headed by Michael Johnson, who joined SPG in June 2010 as vice president of project finance. Johnson is the former managing director of the renewable energy investment program for the National Development Council.

United Capital Markets CEO John Devaney showed ABS market participants at Information Management Network’s ABS East conference that he knows how to throw a great party.

Starwood Capital Group hired a team of seasoned to drive the growth of its commercial real estate finance company, Starwood Property Trust.

United Capital Markets (UCM) is hosting tonight's concert and cocktail party that headlines Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Information Management Network’s (IMN) ABS East conference.

The Richland Cos. hired Andy Carey and Roy Elengical as tenant representatives in its Houston office.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday charge two State Street Bank and Trust Co. employees for allegedly misleading investors about their exposure to subprime investments.

BTIG, a broker-dealer partly owned by Goldman Sachs, is pushing into new markets by helping fixed-income investors buy and sell securities in developing countries, which some observers say have matured and now more closely resemble their trading partners in the Group of 7.

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) announced hires to its now expanded merchant banking group.

Commercial lender CIT Group named Vincent Faino as senior vice president of business development for its vendor finance division.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management business of State Street Corp., engaged investment manager Smith, Graham & Co. Investment Advisors to assist in providing asset management services for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s MBS Purchase Program.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) appointed Simon Lewis as its chief executive. The new hire will assume his position on Oct. 1.

Lawmakers raised renewed concerns Thursday over the future viability of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), even as the agency's commissioner, David Stevens, touted some progress in restoring its depleted capital reserves.

The Collingwood Group has appointed of Mary Lou Christy as senior vice president. Before Collingwood, Christy was senior vice president of investor relations for Fannie Mae. In her 24-year career at the GSE, she also led the MBS trading desk, and was vice president of sales and marketing in the southwestern region.

Herb Allison, the head of the government's $700 billion financial bailout program, said Wednesday morning that he is leaving the Treasury Department at month's end.

UniCredit chief executive Alessandro Profumo resigned late Tuesday night, right before its board was to discuss his status at a special meeting.

Keith Danko has joined hedge fund firm Titan Capital Group as partner, the New York-based alternative manager announced today.

BMO Capital Markets appointed Ilias Konstantopoulos as head of Montreal investment and corporate banking.

As technical director of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Russell Golden is the person to whom financial institutions have been addressing their comment letters on a controversial proposal that would expand the use of fair value accounting.

Financing solutions provider LBC Credit Partners hired Jeffrey Blumin as managing director in its New York office.