Mutual matter.

Jefferies Group Inc., the New York-based brokerage with a large presence in Los Angeles, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a probe into whether brokers doled out gifts to mutual fund executives to win trading business, people familiar with the matter said.

The SEC and NASD said on Nov. 23 that they were requesting information from about two dozen firms that may have given or received gifts such as Super Bowl tickets, golf outings and expensive wine.

Jefferies fired sales trader Kevin Quinn, 38, on Oct. 11 for improper travel and entertainment costs. Quinn's sole client was Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual-fund company.

The formal inquiry by the SEC may signal that regulators want to curb the industry's gift-giving to remove any suspicions that it influences fund executives, said James Angel, an associate professor of finance at Georgetown University in Washington.

"If any vendor is giving extraordinarily large gifts to people who are making purchase decisions, it calls into question the judgment of the people making those decisions," Angel said.

Opening a formal investigation grants the SEC's enforcement staff the right to subpoena documents and testimony from witnesses, said the people, who declined to be identified.

"While we always cooperate with regulators, it's our policy not to comment on any specific regulatory matters," Jefferies spokesman Tom Tarrant said. John Heine, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment.

Quinn's attorney declined comment, as did Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley.

Jefferies was founded in Los Angeles in 1962 by the late Boyd Jefferies, and moved its headquarters to New York in 2002.