UBS Category Archives — Investor Lawyers Blog Published By Investment Fraud Attorneys

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Investigates Claims Involving Leveraged UBS ETRACS ETNs After COVID-19 Market Crash Causes Investor Losses

Published on: April 1, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS To Offer Redemptions to ETRACS ETN Investors After Coronavirus-Spurred Crash

If you are an investor who was sold UBS ETRACS exchange-traded notes (ETNs), please contact our investor lawyers at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm) today. ETRACS ETNs are complex and risky investments and they are not suitable for every investor.

UBS recently announced that it was offering mandatory redemptions for certain ETRACS ETNs while freezing trading of others after the market crashes spurred by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. UBS ETRACS ETN investors have lost a lot of money.

Coronavirus And Market Drops Likely to Cause More Losses for UBS YES and CYES Strategy Investors

Published on: March 11, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: YES Strategy Is Vulnerable To Losses Now Markets Are Rough

The World Health Organization (WHO) has just declared the coronavirus a pandemic, with the United States President Donald Trump announcing a travel ban involving more than two dozen nations. As if these health concerns weren’t bad enough, the latest Coronavirus update has also placed the markets in a panic. Dow Jones dropped by thousands of points and the S&P 500 index has also taken a dive.

While the stock markets do typically rebound after a sharp plunge, we are currently living in uncertain times due to COVID-19. As one Bank of America Merrill Lynch report cited in a Reuters article, the coronavirus is the type of “slow-moving train wreck” in which the market “slowly and progressively” realizes its “magnitude.”

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Investigates UBS YES Strategy Claims

Published on: March 5, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS YES Strategy Losses May Be Grounds For A Claim

Our investment fraud lawyers at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm) are continuing to offer free, no-obligation case consultations to investors that lost money in the UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES). SSEK Law Firm represents clients throughout the United States.

Investor fraud claims over UBS YES Strategy losses continue to grow. Among the allegations against UBS are that its brokers made unsuitable recommendations of this complex strategy and misrepresented its risks to many customers, causing at least $60M in losses, with some reports saying that this figure could be much higher.

SSEK Investigates UBS Broker Christopher Tolman For UBS YES Strategy Recommendations

Published on: January 28, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Financial Broker Accused Of Unsuitable Recommendations

If UBS stockbroker, Christopher Wayne Tolman, recommended that you employ UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) for your investments and you sustained significant losses as a result, our securities fraud attorneys at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm) want to talk to you.

Unfortunately, investors have lost about $60M from using this complex investment strategy that many were under the impression was safe and low risk.

UBS Ordered to Pay Investor Over $150K In Puerto Rico Bonds and Closed-End Bond Fund Case

Published on: December 4, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Loses Another Puerto Rico Bonds & Closed-End Fund Case

More than six years after thousands of investors lost many millions of dollars from investing in Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds, UBS Puerto Rico (UBS-PR) is still being held to account for the financial losses faced by many of its clients.

This includes one claimant who was recently awarded over $150,000 in compensation plus interest, other costs, and fees in her Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration case against the firm.

Hong Kong Fines UBS Group $51M For Overcharging Clients

Published on: November 13, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Group Fined $51M By Hong Kong Securities Regulator

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is ordering UBS Group AG (UBS) to pay a $51M fine for overcharging clients between 2008 and 2017. It is also ordering the Swiss banking giant to pay more than $25M in compensation to customers that were harmed.

According to the Hong Kong regulator, about 5,000 clients paid more than they should have in approximately 28,700 transactions. This happened after UBS advisors and assistants added padding to spreads involving bonds, as well as structured note trades and charging extra fees. UBS Group is accused of not disclosing to clients that they were paying these fees.

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Investigates Claims Involving Fired UBS Broker David Fagenson

Published on: October 17, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SSEK Investigating David Fagenson, A Former UBS Brokerage Investment Advisor

If you are an investor who worked with former UBS broker, David Fagenson, and suffered substantial losses or suspect you may have been charged excessive fees and commissions, please contact our broker fraud lawyers at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LLP (SSEK Law Firm) today.

David Fagenson was suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) last year after he allegedly engaged in unsuitable trading in the accounts of three senior investors ranging in age from their 70s to mid-90s. However, this is not the first fraud allegation in which Fagenson has been involved.

Investors Blame Brokers Matthew Buchsbaum And Scott Rosenberg For UBS YES Strategy Losses

Published on: October 1, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Financial Services (UBS) brokers Matthew Buchsbaum and Scott Rosenberg are currently the subjects of multiple investor fraud claims by firm clients who blame them for losses they sustained from the UBS YES Strategy. This Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) is a complex investment strategy and it is not suitable for every investor.

Involving an options overlay strategy, the UBS YES Strategy uses four options having the same expiration date but different strike prices. It employs the strategic buying and selling of SPX options spreads.

UBS YES Strategy investors were told to expect “incremental returns” along with the chance to earn income through low yield assets.

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Wins $550K for Texas Widow Against UBS

Published on: September 18, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel (FINRA) has awarded one of our clients, a 91-year-old widow, $550K in her Texas broker-dealer fraud case against UBS Financial Services (UBS). The claimant, who is from Texas, contends in her Houston senior investor fraud case that because her UBS broker made unsuitable investments on her behalf, she lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in her retirement accounts.

While the FINRA arbitration award doesn’t name the broker, Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas lawyer David Miller identified him as former UBS broker William Andrew Hightower. Attorney Miller said that Hightower, who headed up Hightower Capital Group, recommended that the claimant invest in leveraged and inverse exchange traded products and structured products, as well as his own private investments. These investments were not suitable for her.

Hightower is now accused of operating a $10M Ponzi fraud. Among the unsuitable investments that he made on our client’s behalf were those involving private placements Reproductive Research Technologies and Isospec Technologies, which were part of his alleged scam, and one fake private annuity.

Investors Suing UBS Puerto Rico Over Closed-End Fund Losses Are Denied Class Action Certification

Published on: September 19, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein is refusing to grant class action certification to a group of investors suing UBS Puerto Rico over its sale of proprietary closed-end mutual funds. In particular, the class action complaint dealt with a series of 23 closed-end bond funds that UBS Puerto Rico developed and marketed exclusively to Puerto Rico residents.

These proprietary closed-end funds were comprised of at least 2/3 Puerto Rico debt (and often much higher), resulting in a geographic concentration that placed the owners of such funds at a great risk if anything negative happened on the island. Additionally, the UBS closed-end funds were highly leveraged, typically borrowing $1 for every $1 invested, meaning that any losses in the closed-end funds would be significantly increased.

Notwithstanding the above, the plaintiff investors say that UBS falsely depicted these closed-end mutual funds as safe and secure investments that would garner fund holders tax-free income when, in truth, the mutual funds were “ticking time bombs” that were actually very risky.