Investor Lawyers Blog
Stock fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investments with Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company Inc. Reportedly, Fidelity Brokerage Services and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent recently. In this letter, the firms were jointly censured and fined $375,000.
According to the allegations against them, the firms sold, wholesaled and/or marketed an income mutual fund’s shares and, in connection, created training, wholesaling and/or advertising materials for the fund. These materials were provided to the retail sales firms, used within the selling intermediaries for institutional purposes, used internally, used for institutional purposes and provided to public customers.
Securities arbitration lawyers say that the findings stated that some of the sales materials distributed by the firms were misleading, unbalanced, failed to provide a sound basis for evaluating the risks of the funds and contained statements that were unwarranted. Furthermore, the firms allegedly failed to perform timely updates on the sales materials which affected the accuracy of the portrayal of the negative impacts resulting from the sub-prime crisis. This resulted in an inaccurate representation of the value of the portfolio investments and share of the fund and unqualified promises about future performance.