FINRA Awards First United Bank & Trust Over $11.5M in Arbitration Case Against First Horizon National Involving CODs and Other Securities

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel has awarded First United Bank & Trust and First United Corp. over $11.5M in their securities fraud case against FTN Financial Securities Corp., Hugh James Boone, and Franklin Benjamin Kennedy. The bank is claiming unsuitable investments, misrepresentations, omission, breach of fiduciary duty, failure to supervise, breach of implied contract, and common law fraud involving the claimants’ purchase of preferred term securities, trust preferred securities, and other collateralized debt obligations. Two of the preferred term securities at issue are the PreTSL Notes, also known as the I-PreTSLI notes, and the PreTSL XVII.

The claimants said that that purchase of the PreTSL Notes were among a number of transactions in their leverage strategy. They said that the respondents were aware that the notes had deteriorated after they were issued but did not inform the claimants. The respondents denied the claimants’ allegations. Boone and Kennedy in their response said that they acted properly as financial adviser.

First United had bought the securities from FTN Financial Securities, which is a unit of First Horizon.

At the SSEK Partners Group our securities lawyers have experience representing banks, financial firms, partnerships, corporations, trusts, charitable organizations, municipalities, retirement plans, and private foundations in recovering their investment losses caused by negligence, fraud, and other illegal or improper activities. We know that a securities case impacting an institution may involve not just significant financial losses for the entity but may also have affected hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of individuals. Contact our securities fraud law firm today.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority


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