SECURITIES

Missouri Accuses Lloyd’s of Fraud: Missouri Secretary of State Rebecca Cook, following on the heels of California and other states, issued a cease-and-desist order against Lloyd’s of London, accusing the British insurance institution of a securities fraud that caught 79 Missourians in “a web of deceit.� Cook ordered Lloyd’s to stop recruiting investors in Missouri and forbid it from collecting any more money from current investors, whose losses already total about $17 million. Missouri’s allegations are similar to those made last week by the California Department of Corporations, which sued Lloyd’s for, among other things, allegedly failing to register its offerings as securities. Lloyd’s denies wrongdoing and contends the contracts between it and the investors are not securities, a spokeswoman said.