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Articles Posted in Suitability

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Investment fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses in non-traded real estate investment trusts, or non-traded REITs, in light of an investigation that is now underway by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities.

Pennsylvania Regulators Investigate Non-traded REIT Sales

Reportedly, Pennsylvania regulators are currently looking into non-traded REIT sales conducted by Securities America employees. Securities America is owned by broker-dealer Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., which also owns two more independent brokerage firms. Ladenburg stated in its annual report that Pennsylvania regulators wanted to be provided with data regarding non-traded REITs purchased by Pennsylvania residents since 2007.

Securities arbitration lawyers are currently unsure if the non-traded REIT sales investigation will extend to firms other than Securities America.

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Securities fraud attorneys are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses in variable annuities. Variable annuities are insurance products tied to an investment portfolio, which typically consist of mutual funds that hold bonds and stocks. In many cases, brokers receive commissions as high as 8 percent when selling variable annuities, which may motivate them to make recommendations that are unsuitable for investors.

Two MetLife Brokers Accused of Unsuitable Variable Annuity Sales

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently filed a complaint against two MetLife Securities Inc. brokers, Patrick Chapin and Christopher Birli. According to the complaint, Chapin and Birli focused on advising State University of New York employees on their retirement plan. Both were terminated in 2012 and do not work in the securities industry at this time.

According to the complaint, Chapin and Birli allegedly made recommendations to 45 of their customers to unload their plan’s MetLife variable annuities by cashing in their annuities, purchasing another security within the plan to be held for 90 days, and then selling that security to switch to new variable annuities outside the university plan, held in IRAs. The alleged misconduct took place between 2004 and 2007. According to FINRA, this scheme generated commissions for the brokers amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Our recent blog post, “Berthel Fisher and Affiliate Fined Regarding Sales of ETFs and Non-Traded REITs,” reported that in February the firm had been fined $775,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The FINRA fines addressed alleged supervisory failures, including failure to properly supervise the sale of alternative investments like leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). One claim has already been filed by investment fraud lawyers on behalf of a retired woman in Minnesota.

Claims Against Berthel Fisher for Unsuitable Sale of Alternative Investments Begin

According to the claim, the woman was sold non-traded REITs and other alternative investments by Jonathan Pyne, a broker for Berthel Fisher. The claim argues that her age and low risk tolerance made the investments unsuitable for her. The investments included:

  • Inland American Real Estate Trust
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Securities fraud attorneys are investigating claims on behalf of customers of LPL Financial LLC. This move comes on the heels of an announcement on March 24, 2014 from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) which stated that the firm had been fined $950,000 for supervisory failures related to alternative investment sales.

Unsuitable Alternative Investment Sales: LPL Customers Could Recover Losses

These investments included:

  • Non-traded real estate investment trusts, or REITs
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Investment fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses in mortgage-backed securities. The investigations are concerning full-service brokerage firms that may have failed to properly supervise their traders and/or gave false pricing information to investors.

Recovering Mortgage-backed Securities Losses

Recently, Jefferies LLC agreed to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) by paying $25 million for allegedly failing to adequately supervise traders regarding mortgage-backed securities. In addition, authorities believe some of the Jefferies staff may have lied to investors regarding pricing. The alleged supervisory failures took place between 2009 and 2011.  An SEC investigation reportedly found that Jefferies had lied to customers about the prices that hte firm piad for certain mortgage-backed securities that it later sold to customers, thus misleading the customers concerning the “markups” or trading profits received by Jefferies in connection with the sales.  

The SEC argued that supervisors at Jefferies could not properly supervise trading activity with what they were given by the investment bank, and that they did not find out what customers were being told regarding what prices were paid by the bank for certain securities and whether or not this information was accurate. While the bank’s policy required supervisors to view electronic conversations, Jefferies has been accused of failing to review conversations on Bloomberg terminals, and the SEC contends that even when conversations were reviewed, the policy did not ensure that misrepresentations in price would be identified.

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Securities fraud attorneys are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of doing business with Douglas Guarino, Lawrence Lee or Robert E. Lee and Rockwell Global Capital. The investigations are regarding fraud, unsuitable recommendations and churning that the three men allegedly conducted while registered with Rockwell Global Capital as financial advisors.

According to stock fraud lawyers, firms have an obligation to fully disclose all the risks of a given investment when making recommendations, and those recommendations must be suitable for the individual investor receiving the recommendation given their age, investment objectives and risk tolerance. Churning, on the other hand, is a form of broker misconduct in which the broker performs excessive trading to generate personal profit.

In addition, a firm has an obligation to properly supervise brokers and financial advisors while they are registered with the firm. If it fails in this duty, securities fraud attorneys say it may be held liable for customer losses. One Statement of Claim has already been filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority against the firm, alleging that Douglas Guarino, Lawrence Lee and Robert E. Lee had churned a client’s account. The claim is seeking damages for excessive trading, churning, fraud and unsuitable recommendations.

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Investment fraud lawyers continue to investigate claims on behalf of individuals who suffered significant losses in Puerto Rican bonds after the value of these investments plummeted in 2013, causing many investors to suffer significant losses. In addition, securities arbitration lawyers are keeping an eye on recent news that indicates investors may be able to pursue their claims in continental Unites States venues, rather than in Puerto Rico, due to the shortage of FINRA arbitrators on the island.

Recent News Regarding Puerto Rican Bonds

A claim was recently filed on behalf of a former client of Luis Fernandez and Angel Canabal against UBS Financial Services Incorporated of Puerto Rico and UBS Financial Services Inc. According to the claim, the retired client invested the majority of his life savings based on the recommendation of Fernandez in UBS proprietary bond funds, which were primarily invested in Puerto Rican debt.  Allegedly, these investments were risky, illiquid and unsuitable for the investor.

The claim also alleges that the risks of the investments were not explained to the client, and that UBS made a recommendation that he borrow more money to be invested in the proprietary funds from a UBS-related company.  The account was later taken over by Canabal, who allegedly told the investor that the recommendations were sound, the account wasn’t invested aggressively, and no changes were required.

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Securities fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of the customers of Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc. and Securities Management & Research Inc., a Berthel Fisher affiliate in Marion, Iowa. In February, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that it had fined the two a total of $775,000 for supervisory deficiencies. The deficiencies included Berthel Fisher’s failure to properly supervise the sale of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds and non-traded real estate investment trusts.

Berthel Fisher, Affiliate Fined Regarding Sales of ETFs and Non-traded REITs

According to the FINRA investigation’s findings, Berthel Fisher did not have adequate written procedures and supervisory systems in place from January 2008 to December 2012 for the following alternative investments:

  • Non-traded REITs
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Investment fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of the customers of Florlena Cortez, a former broker for Chase Investment Services Corp. Cortez is also known as Florlena Cortez Alva and Florlena Cortez Guerrero, CRD No. 4339441. Cortez was registered with Chase from May 2002 to February 2012, and securities arbitration lawyers say that the firm could be held responsible for customer losses suffered during the time she was registered with the firm if Chase did not adequately supervise her activities.

Investment Loss Recovery Regarding Florlena Cortez, Former Chase Broker

Reportedly, Cortez entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) alleged that Cortez participated in private securities transactions from 2009 to 2010 “that were outside the regular course and scope of her association with Chase Investment Services. Cortez did not provide prior written notice to Chase Investment services describing in detail the proposed transactions and her proposed role in them, including whether she had received or would receive selling compensation in connection with the transactions.”

According to the letter, Cortez “informed FINRA that she will not appear to testify at an on-the-record interview” regarding whether she engaged in “undisclosed private securities transactions and outside business activities while registered with Chase Investment Services.” Cortez has been barred from association with any FINRA member.

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Securities fraud attorneys are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of the unsuitable recommendation and sale of alternative investments. In one recent arbitration claim, filed in Texas, two VSR Financial Services clients are seeking $600,000 in damages that allegedly resulted from the unsuitable recommendation and sale of alternative investments. The investments named in the claim include:

  • NetREIT Common
  • Florida Capital Real Estate Partners 27
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