A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel is ordering UBS Financial Services (UBS) and UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico (UBS-PR) to pay investor Jose F. Pastrana $693K, including at least $564,559 in damages, legal fees, and other costs in its Puerto Rico bond fraud case. UBS also must…
For the third time this month, The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has announced that it has barred yet another Morgan Stanley (MS) broker. The brokerage firm had fired financial adviser Bruce Plyer in late 2016 in the wake of allegations that he executed trades in a client’s account without authorization.…
In Texas, a federal grand jury has indicted a couple accused of embezzling $14.5M dollars from the retirement plans that they oversaw. Wendy Richie and Jeffrey Richie co-own Vantage Benefits Administrator, which acted as a third party administrator for many retirement funds, including 401(K) plans. According to the US Attorney’s…
Man Who Ran RMA Strategic Opportunity Fund Ponzi Scam Pleads Guilty Raymond K. Montoya, a Boston hedge fund manager, has pleaded guilty to operating a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam involving the RMA Strategic Opportunity Fund, LLC. Montoya pleaded guilty to multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conducting an…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel is ordering UBS Financial Services Inc. (UBS) to pay restitution of almost $19.8M in an arbitration case involving Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end funds that were sold to investors. This is the largest amount that UBS has paid to date to claimants in a…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced this week that Christopher Faulkner, a Texas businessman, will pay $23.8M to settle oil and gas charges involving an alleged over $80M securities scam that bilked hundreds of investors. Faulkner, who called himself the “Frack Master” and claimed to be an expert in…
HSBC will pay a $765M penalty over claims involving its packaging, marketing, and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities prior to the 2008 economic crisis. According to the US Attorney Bob Troyer, from the beginning HSBC employed a due diligence process that it knew was ineffective, “chose” to place faulty mortgages…
Former Financial Adviser Now Facing Years in Prison for $20M Investor Fraud Dawn Bennett, an ex-financial adviser and the operator of Bennett Financial Group Services, has been convicted of 17 criminal charges, including securities fraud, conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements on a loan application. It took…
Nearly years after settling two 401K lawsuits for $12 million, participants in Fidelity Investments’ retirement plan are once more suing the firm. The plaintiffs allege that self-dealing cost them money while allowing the financial firm and a number of its affiliated entities to turn a profit. According to the complaint…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has barred another former Morgan Stanley (MS) broker. John Halsey Buck III consented to the industry bar after he did not provide the information and documents that the self-regulatory organization asked for related to its probe into his alleged involvement in unapproved private securities sales.…