An egg-farming family based in New York has been awarded $3.2M in its Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration claim against AXA Financial. The claimants are an older couple, Sandra and James Fitzpatrick, who own Fitzpatrick Poultry Farm. They contend that Franceso Puccio, an ex-AXA Financial broker, placed their money…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel is ordering Morgan Stanley (MS) to pay a claimant $454,813 for retirement fund mismanagement. The claimant is The Carpenter Law Firm Defined Benefit Plan. The Carpenter Law Firm is based in Iowa. According to the FINRA award, the law firm contends that…
Morgan Stanley (MS) has agreed to a $150M settlement with the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) to resolve claims that it misled investors about the risks involved in mortgage-backed securities, which both pension funds purchased from 2003 to 2007. CalSTRS and…
An investor in GPB Capital has filed a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Claim against Arkadios Capital and one of its brokers over losses she sustained to her IRA after she followed the financial adviser’s recommendation to invest in GPB Capital Holdings. Now she is claiming retirement fund losses in…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that Buckman, Buckman & Reid, a New Jersey-based brokerage firm, will pay about $205K in restitution to seven clients to settle claims that it did not reasonably supervise two ex-registered representatives accused of recommending “excessive and unsuitable trades.” The self-regulatory authority (SRO) has…
The Puerto Rico Government Employees and Judiciary Retirement Systems Administration, a pension plan for retirees of the U.S. territory’s government, has filed a proposed securities class action in federal court against Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), Barclays Capital, Inc. (BARC), BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Bank of…
SEC Accuses Investment Adviser of Misappropriating Funds from Hedge Funds The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has secured an emergency asset freeze, as well as a temporary restraining order, to stop an ongoing allegedly fraudulent securities offering that was purportedly conducted to conceal the misappropriation of about $570K from…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed civil fraud charges accusing 15 people of either “acting as unregistered brokers” or “aiding-and-abetting” this kind of activity related to the solicitation of microcap issuer Intertech Solution’s “unregistered and fraudulent securities offerings.” Already, 11 of the defendants have consented to the…
The Financial Industry Regulatory (FINRA) announced that it is barring former Aegis Capital broker James Schwartz for allegedly churning four clients’ accounts. The self-regulatory authority (SRO) contends that Schwartz, who is no longer employed in the securities industry, made 256 trades in these accounts without first getting the customers’ permission…
According to the Texas State Securities Board, target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>LPL Financial (LPLA) will pay a $450K fine and buy back unregistered securities. The Consent Order noted that the settlement is part of the wider $26M one reached between the brokerage firm and state securities regulators in 2018. In its deal…