Securities Fraud

Groupon Loses Dismissal Bid Over IPO Securities Fraud Case

Published on: September 26, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A district court judge has ordered Groupon Inc. to face a securities lawsuit filed against it accusing the deal-of-the-day coupon company of misleading investors regarding its financial state right before its IPO in 2011. The Illinois-based company had sought to have the securities fraud case brought by investor Michael Carter Cohn, dismissed. Cohn wants his claim to get class action securities status.

The investor claims that Groupon committed securities fraud and used refund accounting that was not allowed to spike revenues in a prospectus related to its initial public offerings, as well as in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle in Chicago, the claims “present plausible violations.” Norgle also turned down requests by Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS), and Credit Suisse (CS) to throw out the claims against them. These banks arranged the public offering.

On March 30, 2012-not long after opening at $28 in Nasdaq stock exchange trading on November 4, 2011-Groupon reported a “material weakness” in its financial controls, as well as first reported quarterly sales as a company that was now publicly traded were not as high as stated earlier because of high refunds received by merchants. This lowered revenue during 2011’s last quarter to $492 million-that’s a $14.3 million difference. The company’s shares by November 13, 2012 hit $2.63 dollars.

FINRA Suspends and Fines GlobaLink Securities Principal

Published on: September 19, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA is fining GlobaLink Securities Registered Principal Junhua Michael Liao $20,000. According to the SRO’s findings, through Liao, the firm executed an agreement to sell and market a Regulation D offering comprised of promissory notes for a medical receivables financing company. The financial firm then is said to have sold over $1.2 million of the notes to certain customers, resulting in about $56,700 in commissions.

FINRA also said that during the period in question, it was Liao’s job as the compliance officer for the firm to makes sure that GlobaLink Securities set up, kept up, and enforced a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures designed to ensure compliance with regulations and laws and rules that were applicable. The agency said that while the financial firm did keep up written supervisory procedures regarding private placement sales, the WSPs were not sufficient and lacked specific details about how the firm was to perform due diligence, handle transactions, ensure that a Regulation D product was appropriate for investors, and document GlobaLink’s actions and decisions pertaining to the transactions.

FINRA said that because of the deficient WSPs and inadequate supervision, the firm did not perform proper due diligence on the offerings and that this stopped GlobaLink and Liao from finding out that the issuer had previous payment problems on other note offerings, which resulted in the private placement memorandum misrepresenting the past performance of that issuer. Liao consented to the described sanctions as well as to the SRO’s entry of findings. In addition to the fine, he received a one-month suspension from associating with any other FINRA member in any type of principal role.

SEC Charges ACI Capital Group Owner with New York Securities Fraud

Published on: September 16, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Fredrick D. Scott, the New York money manager who owns investment advisory firm ACI Capital Group. The regulator contends that he falsely claimed that the company’s assets under management were as high as $3.7 billion to give him greater credibility when he promoted investment opportunities that were too good to be true. Scott allegedly ran a number of financial scams that targeted small businesses and individual investors.

The SEC says that Scott solicited investors for money by promising high return rates and then stole their funds the moment they deposited it with his investment advisory firm. He used their money to pay for personal expenses and investors never received returns.

One securities scam Scott purportedly perpetuated was what is referred to as an advance fee scheme. Investors were promised that ACI would give multimillion-dollar loans to people wanting bank financing. However, they first had to advance a percentage of the loan figure to the investment advisory firm. Afterwards, they were to get the remaining balance that was promised to them. Unfortunately, investors never received this money.

Broker Gets 1-Year Suspension From FINRA Over Inadequate Due Diligence and Supervision

Published on: September 14, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Gary Mitchell Spitz, a broker and a registered principal of an Iowa-based brokerage firm, is suspended from associating with any FINRA member for a year and must pay a $5,000 fine. The SRO says that Spitz did not perform proper due diligence of an entity—a Reg D, Rule 506 private offering of up to $2 million—even though this action is mandated by his firm’s written supervisory procedures.

FINRA’s finding state that because of Spitz’s inadequate review, he did not make sure that the offering memorandum had audited financials of the issuer or make sure that these financials were accessible to non-accredited investors prior to a sale—also, a Regulation D requirement. The SRO says that Spitz let certain registered representatives, who were associated with the firm, to sell the entity’s shares and turn in offering documents that customers had executed directly to that entity. This meant that Spitz did not get copies of the documents or perform a suitable review of the transactions before they were executed. Certain customers even invested in the entity prior to Spitz getting the subscription documents from these representatives.

Spitz also is accused of not acting to make sure that the representatives made reasonable attempts to get information about the financial status, risk tolerance, and investment goals of customers. FINRA says he did not retain and review these representatives’ email correspondence and that they worked for a company that was the entity’s manager. Spitz let these representatives use the company’s email address to dialogue with customers and prospective clients but that the firm’s server did not capture the correspondence.

Foremost Trading LLC Must Pay $400K to CFTC for Supervisory Violations

Published on: September 12, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Foremost Trading LLC has settled the securities charges filed against it by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The regulator accused the introducing broker of failing to properly supervise the handling of specific trading accounts by employees, agents, and officers. To settle, Foremost Trading must pay a $400K civil penalty and cease and desist from future CFTC regulation violations.

According to the agency’s order, the accounts involved were held by clients who were referred to the introducing broker via three unregistered entities that sold futures trading systems. Foremost Trading and its staff are accused of disregarding warning signs that the Systems-Systems Providers were using fraudulent means and business practices to get these clients.

Clients complained to Foremost. However, contends the CFTC, the latter did not properly investigate claims or let other clients know about the allegations. Meantime, the introducing broker kept setting up accounts for clients referred to it by Systems Provider, even vouching for the latter’s track record when communicating with clients.

Many Financial Fraud Victims Don’t See It Coming, Says Survey

Published on: September 7, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to people who took a survey a report called the Financial Fraud and Fraud Susceptibility in the United States, while most people have been targeted by financial scammers, nearly half of them don’t see it coming. Almost 24,000 adults in the 40 and over age group participated.

Among the survey results:

• Over 80% of respondents had been approached about taking part in what was potentially financial scam.

SEC Votes to Amend Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility Rules

Published on: September 2, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

By unanimous decision, the Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to amendments to the Securities Exchange Act or 1934’s rules regarding customer protection, net capital, notification, and record books for broker-dealers. The regulator is seeking to enhance protections for investors and prevent business practices that are not sound.

Under The Act, broker-dealers have to satisfy certain financial requirements so that customers are protected in the event of the firm’s financial failure. The Act offers safeguards so that customer funds and securities being held by a broker are protected.

The Customer Protections Rule

US DOJ To Bring Charges Against Those Accountable for 2008 Financial Crisis

Published on: August 22, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to The Wall Street Journal, US Attorney General Eric Holder wants Wall Street to know that the Justice Department is getting ready to bring criminal and civil securities fraud charges against those accountable for the financial crisis of 2008. Cases against a number of large financial firms are likely. During his interview with the WSJ, Holder said that “No individual, no company is above the law.”

Holder has been criticized, along with the Obama Administration, of not doing enough to file criminal charges against financial firm executives over the 2008 meltdown. However, recent disclosures indicate that the US government is going after new prosecutions of possible wrongdoing involving mortgage-backed securities.

After that industry’s fast growth led to the housing bubble, which then burst, resulting in a credit crisis, financial institutions were left with securities that dropped in value. DOJ officials also say that prosecutors continue to be involved in probes involving RMBS.

Harbinger Capital and Hedge Fund Adviser Philip Falcone To Settle SEC Fraud Charges by Paying Over $18M and Admitting Wrongdoing

Published on: August 20, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The SEC says that Philip A. Falcone and his Harbinger Capital Partners will pay over $18 million and admit wrongdoing related to its securities fraud case alleging the improper use of $113 million in fund assets to cover the hedge fund advisor’s personal taxes. The Commission also is accusing them of secretly placing a preference over specific customer redemption requests at cost to other investors and performing an improper “short squeeze” involving bonds that were put out by a Canadian manufacturer.

Not only are Harbinger and Falcone admitting wrongdoing but also they are acknowledging that they committed numerous acts of misconduct that hurt investors and got in the way of the securities market’s proper functioning.

Admissions by Falcone and Harbinger, as set out by papers submitted to the court:

AIG Shuts Down Customers’ Bank Accounts in the Wake of Dodd-Frank Limits

Published on: August 19, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

American International Group (AIG) will give its banking unit back their money and close out their accounts. The move is because the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has imposed limits on insurers that have units that take deposits.

In a letter to clients, the insurance giant said that retail deposit accounts would stop being serviced as of September 30 and AIG Bank will become a “trust-only organization.” Interest will be included in the fund returns.

AIG is streamlining its focus before rules limiting proprietary trading and investments by insurance companies in banking units in hedge funds or private equity go into effect. Already, Allstate Corp., Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., MetLife Inc. (MET) have stepped back from banking or sold deposits because of greater regulator oversight.