Raymond James Financial Inc. (RJF) has agreed to pay $150 million to resolve all investor claims involving the Jay Peak Resort’s immigrant visa fraud. The EB-5 scam was created in 2007 by third parties and offered to foreign investors. Although settling, the firm noted in a statement that it was…
Investor Lawyers Blog
Broker Fraud: FINRA Arbitration Panel Awards Investor $1M After Misleading Variable Annuities Sales Pitch, Broker-Dealer Owner Gets Prison Sentence in $100M Stock-Loan Scheme, & Fugitive Broker is Arrested After 20 Years On the Run
Investor Awarded Over $1M After Allegedly Misleading Sales Pitch by Wilbank Securities Broker A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel has awarded investor Grace S. Huitt over $1 million in her broker fraud claim against Wilbanks Securities. According to Huitt, one of the firm’s brokers presented her with a sales pitch…
Swaps Interest Rate Cases: FHLBNY Settles With Lehman Brothers for $70M & Banco Santander and Portugal Come to An Agreement
The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York will pay Lehman Brothers and its Special Financing unit a $70M settlement in an interest-rate swaps case. The plaintiffs sued FHLBNY two years ago seeking over $150M that they claim they were owed related to their position on more than 350 swaps and…
Swaps Interest Rate Cases: FHLBNY Settles With Lehman Brothers for $70M & Banco Santander and Portugal Come to An Agreement
The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York will pay Lehman Brothers and its Special Financing unit a $70M settlement in an interest-rate swaps case. The plaintiffs sued FHLBNY two years ago seeking over $150M that they claim they were owed related to their position on more than 350 swaps…
Austin Oil and Gas Financiers Plead Guilty in Texas-Based Securities Fraud Case
Business partners Janniece Kaelin and Robert Allen Helms have pleaded guilty to bilking investors of up to $20M in a Texas-based Ponzi scam. The oil and gas financiers used the funds raised for energy ventures to cover their own expenses from 1/2010 to 12/2013. The US Securities and Exchange Commission…
Puerto Rico Debt: Creditor Sues Bank of New York Mellon Over COFINA’s Revenue and Pension Participants File Lawsuit to Stop Island’s Proposed Fiscal Plan
Hedge fund Whitebox Advisors has filed a lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) over revenues from Puerto Rico’s sales tax bonds, which are commonly called COFINAs, that support $17 Billion of the island’s debt. Currently, the US territory is continuing to struggle to pay back the $70…
Morgan Stanley to Pay Massachusetts $1M to Settle Charges Alleging Unethical Sales Contests Involving Brokerage Customers
To settle charges over a high-pressure sales contest involving its financial advisers and brokerage clients, Morgan Stanley (MS) will pay $1 million to Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin. By settling, the firm did not deny or admit to the charges. It must, however, reassess its sales contest policies…
PREPA and Its Bondholders Arrive at Deal to Restructure Almost $9 Billion in Puerto Rico Debt
A new restructuring agreement has been reached between the Power Utility Company of Puerto Rico, referred to locally as PREPA, and its creditors on how to restructure $8.9 billion in Puerto Rico debt.The deal, which must still be approved by the federally appointed oversight board, comes before the May 1…
Municipal Bondholders Sue Bank of Oklahoma Financial
In separate bond fraud lawsuits, two groups of municipal bond holders are suing Bank of Oklahoma Financial (BOKF), also called BOK Financial Corp. They claim that the bank was not a responsible trustee to certain conduit bondholders that were harmed by fraud. The first securities lawsuit is a class action…
Securities Cases: SEC Fines Credit Suisse $8M Over Improper Investments, $5M Investment Fraud Case Leads to Guilty Plea, and Florida Man is Ordered to Pay Back Investors $2.9M
Credit Suisse Unit and Ex-Investment Adviser Settle SEC Charges, Pay $8M Fine Credit Suisse AG (CS) unit Credit Suisse Securities and Ex-investment adviser Sanford Michael Katz have settled SEC charges accusing them of improperly investing the funds of clients in “Class A” mutual fund shares instead of “institutional” shares that…