Ex-Investment Adviser Loses Arbitration Claim Over Gold Exchange-Traded Fund Ex-financial adviser Dawn Bennett is on the losing end of a $1M securities arbitration claim brought by a former client who claims that she recommended he invest in a gold exchange-traded fund. Steven Santagati brought his ETF securities case to the…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to charge Navellier & Associates with fraud. The registered investment advisor, in a Form ADV brochure filing, disclosed that the regulator’s enforcement staff had preliminarily determined to recommend that the SEC file a case. The Commission has been investigating advisory firms that…
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) has consented to pay a penalty of $8M to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the firm of wrongdoing involving single inverse exchange-traded fund investments. Morgan Stanley admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement. According to the SEC’s order, Morgan Stanley failed to adequately…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Panel is ordering Mid Atlantic Capital Corp. to pay David Wellman and Beverly Bien $922K. The married couple sued the independent brokerage firm for losses they sustained after they invested in Sonoma Ridge Partners (a real estate private placement), KBS-sponsored nontraded REITs, silver and gold exchange-traded…
Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) has agreed to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges accusing the firm of misleading investors about the performance of one of its exchange-traded funds and not placing an accurate value on certain fund securities. As part of the settlement, PIMCO will pay almost…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed penalties against more than a dozen investment advisory firms because they purportedly spread false claims made by F-Squared Investments about its Alpha Sector strategy. The SEC said that the firms violated securities laws. According to the regulator, which conducted an enforcement sweep,…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a case against Richard William Lunn Martin, a former broker. According to the self-regulatory organization, from at least 3/11 through 7/15, and while he was a GF Investment services broker, Martin encouraged clients to invest in high-risk non-traditional exchange-traded funds so he could…
FINRA is fining Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. (OPY) $2.2M for the sale of non-traditional exchange-traded funds, including inverse, leveraged, and inverse-leveraged ETFs, to retail customers without proper supervision and for suggesting them to clients even though they were not appropriate investments for them. The self-regulatory organization is also making the…
BNY Mellon to Pay Massachusetts $3M Over Computer Problem That Impacted Mutual Funds Bank of New York Mellon (BK) will pay $3 million to the state of Massachusetts to resolve a probe that found that a computer glitch did not calculate net asset values for over 1,000 mutual funds. Although…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is barring Nicholas Rowe, the former owner of registered investment advisor Focus Capital Wealth Management, from the industry. The charges come in the wake of parallel proceedings in New Hampshire where state regulators barred him from being licensed as an investment adviser. The New…