Rīga-based Parex Bank’s USD 3 million trading account in the United States has been frozen under a federal court order in the District of Columbia, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced March 7.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina involves a case filed March 6 by the SEC against Parex and an unknown number of stock traders who are being accused of a “pump and dump” scheme using the Internet to defraud investors of more than USD 732,000.

The SEC claims in court documents that from at least December 2005 to December 2006, one or more stock traders based abroad purchased shares in 15 companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. The purchases allegedly were made through sub-accounts of the trading account controlled by Parex.

“These unknown traders then hacked into unsuspecting investors’ online brokerage accounts at seven major online broker-dealers and sold off investors’ existing securities holdings,” the SEC said in a press release. “They then used the proceeds to buy shares on the open market of the thinly-traded issuers the unknown traders had previously purchased in their own sub-accounts.”

The broker-dealers whose customers’ accounts were hacked into suffered about USD 2 million in losses, according to court documents.

Parex’s trading account is held by Pinnacle Capital Markets, a North Carolina-based broker-dealer, the SEC said in court documents. Opened in 2002, the account has 75 sub-accounts. The trading account has 20 beneficiaries living in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and the British Virgin Islands, the SEC said, but it is unclear who owns the sub-accounts.

The investors whose accounts were hacked into traded through some of the best-known online stock brokers: E*Trade Securities, Scottrade Inc., TD Ameritrade Inc., Vanguard Brokerage Services, Fidelity Investments, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., the SEC said.

No immediate response to the court decision was available from Parex. Founded in 1992, Parex is one of Latvia’s largest banks.

Police in Ireland have now arrested Baiba Saulīte’s ex-husband and another man as the investigation into the Latvian woman’s apparent murder-for-hire continues.

The press office of the Garda, or Irish police, announced March 8 that a 38-year-old man was being held at the station in Swords while a 24-year-old man was being held at the Malahide police station. Radio Telefís Éireann and other Irish media identified the 38-year-old as Hassan Hassan, Saulīte’s former husband.

The two men are the ninth and 10th suspects to be arrested in the investigation.

Saulīte was gunned down Nov. 19 at her home in Swords, north of Dublin. She was chatting with friends that evening when a man approached and shot her twice. Saulīte’s two sons, subjects of a 2004 custody battle between her and Hassan, were asleep in the house at the time.

Hassan has been serving prison terms for his involvement in an automobile theft scheme and for abducting his sons in 2004 and taking them to the Middle East. Hassan is Lebanese and was in prison at the time of the murder.

The 24-year-old man is described by RTÉ as a member of a gang from Limerick.

Latvia ranks 53rd in competitivenes in the travel and tourism industry, slightly behind Lithuania and far behind Estonia, according to a new report from the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum.

The forum’s Travel & Tourism Competiveness Report 2007, released March 1, ranked Switzerland as having the most attractive environment for developing the industry. The neighboring nations of Austria and Germany ranked second and third, respectively.

“The top rankings…demonstrate the importance of supportive business and regulatory frameworks, coupled with world-class transport and tourism infrastructure and a focus on nurturing human and natural resources, for fostering an environment that is attractive for developing the travel and tourism sector,” Jennifer Blanke, a senior economist with the World Economic Forum, said in a press release.

A total of 124 nations were ranked in the index. The index examines 13 “pillars” of travel and tourism competitiveness, including policy rules and regulations, environmental regulation, safety and security, health and hygiene, prioritization of travel and tourism, air transport infrastructure, ground transport infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, information and communication technology infrastructure, price competitiveness, human capital, national tourism perception, and natural and cultural resources.

In each of the “pillars,” a country could score from 1 to 7. Latvia’s combined score was 4.3. Its lowest scores were 3.2 in prioritization of travel and tourism, placing it 94th among nations listed in the index, and another 3.2 in air transport infrastructure, where it ranked 54th.

Latvia’s highest score of 5.3 came in the area of human capital, where it ranked 38th overall.

Lithuania also had a combined score of 4.3, but it ranked 51st overall. Estonia, with a combined score of 4.9, ranked 28th.

The index is based on a combination of publicly available data, information from travel and tourism institutions and experts, and the forum’s annual Executive Opinion Survey.

Latvia’s travel and tourism economy represents 5.8 percent of its gross domestic product, according to the report, and is projected to grow at a rate of 7.4 percent annually over the next decade.

The bottom three in the index were the African countries of Angola, Burundi and Chad. The United States ranked fifth overall, while Russia ranked 68th.