Lawyers representing a retired couple in a claim against Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. recently obtained an award from a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) arbitration panel awarding them $800,000 in damages. The claim was based upon an investment of the couple’s money, including retirement assets, into various energy stocks, including Breitburn Energy Partners, Sandridge Permian…
In the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Puerto Rico bond fraud case against ex-UBS Puerto Rico (UBS-PR) broker Jose Ramirez, a federal judge has found that Ramirez committed fraud and was in violation of securities laws when he directed customers to use lines of credit to purchase Puerto Rico closed-end funds. In 2015, the…
$300M Stock Scam Allegations Lead to Guilty Verdict A Brooklyn jury has convicted ex-OmniView Capital Advisors LLC CEO Abraxas J. Discala of conspiracy, wire fraud, and securities fraud in a $300M market rigging scam/ pump-and dump fraud. A second defendant, lawyer Kyleen Cane, was acquitted after initially being charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. According…
In an agreement reached with the North American State Securities Administrators Association, LPL Financial (LPLA) will pay $26M in fines to a number of US states and jurisdictions over unregistered securities sales going back more than a decade. NASAA reports that the settlement comes after a task force was set up last summer to probe…
Yasuna Murakami, a hedge fund manager who oversaw MC2 Capital Management LLC And MC2 Canada Capital Management LLC, is sentenced to six years in prison for fraud. Prosecutors accused him of defrauding hedge fund investors. Additionally, Murakami, must pay over $10.5M in investor restitution. Police arrested the Massachusetts hedge fund manager last year. When pleading guilty to wire fraud, Murakami…
A former UBS (UBS) banking official is claiming that Wall Street banks like his previous employer played a key role in the Puerto Rico economic crisis that has left the U.S. territory more than $70 billion in debt and mired in bankruptcy-like proceedings. The ex-UBS official, Carlos Capacete, was interviewed as part of a joint…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges in an alleged $85M Ponzi scam that may have defrauded at least 150 investors. The defendants in the civil case are Arthur Lamar Adams and his Madison Timber Properties, LLC. Prosecutors have brought a parallel criminal case against Adams charging him with two counts of…
Panasonic Fined by United States in Bribery Scheme Panasonic Corp. will pay over $143M in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest to resolve a US Securities and Exchange Commission case involving a bribery scheme, accusing the company of accounting fraud violations and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Panasonic consented to the order, which finds that…
According to New Jersey’s Attorney General’s Office and Division of Consumer Affairs, JB Financial Resources and its owner Jeffrey Mitchell Isaacs must pay a $750K for allegedly selling NJ investors over $7M in unregistered securities connected to the $1.2B Woodbridge Ponzi Scam. More than 8,500 people are said to have been defrauded nationally in that…
Longfin’s Illegal Trading Was an Easy Catch for the SEC The US Securities and Exchange Commission has gotten a court order to freeze $27M in trading proceeds because of allegations that restricted shares of Longfin Corp. (NASDAQ:LFIN) stock may have been illegally sold and distributed. The regulator’s complaint, unsealed in federal court early this month,…
