Investment fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of conducting business with Anastasios “Tommy” Belesis and other representatives of John Thomas Financial Inc. Specifically, investors in Liberty Silver Corp. and America West Resources Inc. may be eligible to recover their losses. In January of 2013, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a Wells Notice to Belesis, the CEO of John Thomas Financial. Allegedly, Belesis was part of a pump-and-dump scheme involving Liberty Silver Corp.
A FINRA statement alleged that Mr. Belesis “(1) willfully or recklessly sold a substantial portion of a firm proprietary position while failing to execute customer orders to sell shares of the same stock, at prices that would have satisfied the unexecuted customer orders; (2) failed to follow instructions by the customers to sell the shares; (3) used manipulative, deceptive and/or fraudulent means to artificially inflate the price of the stock; (4) made material misrepresentations, to customers, registered representatives and FINRA, about the reasons why the customer orders had not been executed; (5) falsified or failed to preserve the orders in question and other pertinent records; and (6) failed to reasonably supervise the receipt, documentation and execution of the customer orders.” Securities arbitration lawyers are conducting their own investigation into the sales practices of John Thomas Financial, based on FINRA’s claims.
Bloomberg reported that Belesis has also been accused of fraud related to America West Resources Inc. According to FINRA, John Thomas Financial raised $20 million for America West from 2008 to 2011. Investment fraud lawyers say that when America West stock rose significantly in February 2012, Belesis allegedly prevented customers from selling their shares while he instructed an employee to sell the firm’s stock, gaining the firm over $1 million in proceeds. John Thomas Financial allegedly attempted to disguise the alleged fraud by “losing” the customer order tickets. Currently, no decision has been made in this case.
If you suffered significant losses as a result of your investment with John Thomas Financial, you may have a valid securities arbitration claim. To find out more about your legal rights and options, contact a securities arbitration lawyer at The Law Office of Christopher J. Gray at (866) 966-9598 for a no-cost, confidential consultation.