UBS Category Archives — Page 20 of 20 — Investor Lawyers Blog Published By Investment Fraud Attorneys

Morgan Stanley and WestLB Lose Cases Because of E-Mail Evidence—or Lack Thereof

Published on: December 4, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Brokerage firms involved in legal disputes are finding that they are being forced to hand over relevant electronic conversations that are resulting in large jury verdicts, regulatory fines, and the possibility that investors might re-open arbitration cases where e-mail conversations had been suppressed.

Here are a few cases where e-mail records played a key role that was generally not in the favor of the brokerage firm:

Morgan Stanley may have to pay several thousand investors anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 after settling a case with FINRA, who says the brokerage firm did not in fact lose millions of e-mails because of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Investors had said these e-mails could have helped prove their arbitration cases against Morgan Stanley. FINRA says that millions of these e-mails had been restored to the firm’s system and Morgan Stanley tried to withhold this fact.

Fired UBS Broker’s $2.4 Million NASD Arbitration Award is Upheld

Published on: October 25, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A $2.4 million NASD Arbitration Award to a former UBS financial adviser, who was fired in 2003 by the company that preceded UBS PaineWebber Inc. is being upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The court said that it did not agree with UBS’s theory that the arbitration award did not honor provisions made in the arbitration contract or that it was in manifest disregard of the law.

Former financial adviser W. Van Pelt Jr. had served as a financial advisor UBS and its predecessor JC Bradford from 1999-2003. Upon his hiring, he filled out a Form U-4 industry form in which he agreed to not hold UBS liable if it provided specific information, including notice of termination.

He was let go in January 2003 during an internal probe. UBS filed a U-5 form reporting Van Pelt’s termination because of “concerns of conduct” in a matter involving a customer transaction. On the form, UBS said that Van Pelt was not under investigation because the probe was already over at that time.

HSBC Securities, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., UBS Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., and Interactive Brokers LLC Among Firms Disciplined by NYSER

Published on: October 21, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The New York Stock Exchange Regulation Inc. is disciplining nine companies and eight people for numerous violation. The firms disciplined include:

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith: Fined $100,000 for violating rule 123c about 480 times when it cancelled or submitted securities orders after the mandatory cutoff period.

Citigroup Global markets Inc: Find $300,000-half of this to be payed to NASDAQ; the other half to be paid to NYSE. The firm made inaccurate reports about short interest positions in securities that were listed on the NYSE.

Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, DeutscheBank and other Firms Fined for Failing to Deliver Trade Confirmations.

Published on: October 9, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NYSE Regulation fined 14 of its member firms a total of $10.4 million in fines for failing to deliver trade confirmations to their clients and other violations.

Citigroup Global Markets received the heaviest fine of $2.25 million for failing to deliver trade confirmation documents in more than a million consumer transactions. Lehman Brothers and DeutscheBank were each fined $1.25 million.

Other firms sanctioned included UBS Securities; Bear Stearns & Co.; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC ; Banc of America Securities LLC; Goldman Sachs & Co.; JP Morgan Securities; Wachovia Capital Markets LLC; and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Fines levied against these firms ranged from $375,000 to $800,000.

UBS to Pay $23 Million over Charges by NY Attorney General of Abuse in Fee-based Accounts

Published on: July 18, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Financial Services, Inc. will pay $23.3 million to settle charges by New York’s Attorney General of “inappropriately steering” of brokerage customers into fee-based accounts. The NYAG said that under the agreement UBS will pay a $2 million fine and $21.3 million to approximately 3,000 customers it inappropriately placed in its InsightOne program.

According to the NYAG office, UBS charged one 91-year-old InsightOne client more than $35,000 over two years, although only four trades transpired in his account, meaning each trade cost him approximately $8,800. In another example, it says an 82-year-old paid approximately $24,000 in InsightOne fees one year in which only one transaction took place.

“UBS convinced customers to rely on its advice and then abused that trust,” said NYAG Andrew Cuomo. “This major settlement is a win for customers inappropriately pushed into unsuitable brokerage accounts and a warning to the entire industry that customers’ interests must come first.”

NYSE Regulation Fines Swiss American Securities Inc. and UBS Securities, LLC For Violations

Published on: March 14, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NYSE Regulation says it has ordered Swiss American Securities Inc. (a unit of Credit Suisse Group) and UBS Securities LLC to pay fines for a number of securities violations.

The regulatory arm of the New York Stock Exchange says UBS Securities is being fined $95,000 for canceling or entering limit-on-close and market-on-close orders in a number of securities after relevant cut-off times. These violations happened between June 2005 and February 2006. Other violations were also cited as reasons for the fine.

Swiss American Securities was fined $100,000 because it failed to maintain control or possession of all excess and fully paid margin securities that it held for customer accounts (in 2004 and 2005), as well as other violations.

The SEC And The U.S. Attorney’s Office File Separate Criminal And Civil Actions In Major Insider Trading Schemes Involving Confidential Information From UBS Securities And Morgan Stanley

Published on: March 12, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the unsealing of criminal actions against a dozen individuals for allegedly stealing and trading on inside information from Morgan Stanley and UBS Securities, LLC, two Wall Street brokerage firms. The SEC also filed charges against these individuals in a separate civil case.

Former Morgan Stanley attorney Randi Collotta and former UBS Securities LLC executive Mitchell Guttenberg are two of the individuals out of more than a dozen people being charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for two bribery schemes and two insider trading schemes. Participants made over $8 million in illegal trading profits. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia says all of the criminal defendants are in custody. Four of them have pleaded guilty.

Garcia said that the defendants violated the trust that had been given to them, made money illegally, and took extensive measures to hide their alleged illegal actions. Concealment measures included secret meetings, paying cash kickbacks, and communicating in code using disposable cell phone.

Former UBS Vice President Pleads Guilty To Conspiring With Hedge Fund Operator And Founder Of Capital Management Group To Bilk At Least $2.5 Million From Over 40 Investors

Published on: March 7, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that Justin Paperny, a former account vice president at UBS Financial Services, Inc., has pleaded guilty to helping Capital Management Group founder Keith Gilabert bilk at least $2.5 million from investors.

Paperny pled guilty to wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, while admitting that he helped Gilabert fraudulently run GLT Venture Fund. Paperny also said that he lied to investors so that they would invest in the fund, took kickbacks from Gilabert, and conspired with him to mislead investors about the hedge fund’s performance history, the oversight of Capital Management Group by his brokerage firm, and any risks connected to investing in Capital Management Group.

That said, Paperny also says that he informed management at the brokerage firm that GLT had not been adhering to its investment strategy and that authorities at his firm knew of Gilabert’s fraudulent behavior. The investigation is pending. Paperny faces a possible 5-year federal prison term. He has agreed to cooperate with investigators as a condition of his guilty plea.

N.Y. Attorney General’s Office Sues UBS Financial Services, Inc.

Published on: January 4, 2007 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The New York Attorney General’s Office is suing UBS Financial Services, Inc. for defrauding thousands of its customers. The lawsuit provides detailed information about a scheme where UBS moved clients from regular brokerage accounts to UBS’s “InsightOne” brokerage program, even though these investors were actually not well-suited for the program. UBS is a leading brokerage firm in the United States.

With InsightOne, brokerage customers had to pay an asset-based fee instead of a per-transaction commission. Asset-based fees, however, are not appropriate for investors who hardly ever trade securities or hold no-load mutual funds, a large amount of cash, or similar assets. UBS is being accused of falsely promoting InsightOne as being a brokerage program that offers personalized advice and other types of financial planning services.

Instead of discouraging investors who were inappropriate for InsightOne from joining the program, the N.Y. Attorney General’s Office says that UBS: