SEC Dropping Fraud Charges Against Thornburg Mortgage Execs

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission is dropping some fraud charges against two former executives of Santa Fe-based Thornburg Mortgage. The agency filed a motion Friday, saying it would no longer pursue three of five claims and an allegation that the two had filed a false financial statement. The agency filed a lawsuit in 2012, alleging that Larry Goldstone, Clarence Simmons III and Jane Starrett hid the company's deteriorating financial condition at the start of the housing market collapse by issuing misleading statements. They also were accused of hiding a $428 million loss in a 2007 annual report. Starrett settled and agreed to pay a penalty. A jury cleared Goldstone and Simmons in July of five counts of civil accounting fraud but deadlocked on five others.