Investor Lawyers Blog

Investment Scam: Ex-MRI International CEO Convicted in $1.5B Ponzi Scam, Receiver Says Aequitas Capital Management Was Involved in $617M Fraud, and Texas-Based AriseBank CEO Is Accused in $4M Cryptocurrency Fraud

Published on: December 12, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former MRI International Head is Found Guilty in $1.5B Ponzi Scam

Edwin Fujinaga, the ex-CEO of medical billings collections company MRI International, has been convicted of multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced earlier this year.

According to the release issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, Fujinaga and two other MRI executives were indicted in 2013 and were accused of fraudulently soliciting investments from over 10,000 residents in Japan, who wired their money to the US into bank accounts that he controlled. Fujinaga told investors that their funds would go toward buying medical claims only.

Former Lombard Securities Broker Pleads Guilty in Multimillion-Dollar Ponzi Scam That Defrauded Older Investors

Published on: December 11, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Steven Pagartanis, an ex-New York broker with Lombard Securities, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and mail fraud in a Ponzi scam that went on for more than 18 years and caused investors to lose more than $9M of the over $13M that they invested. Many of his victims were older investors who lost a significant amount of their life savings. Many of them had worked with Pagartanis for years.

According to the release by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, from 1/2000 to 3/2018, Pagartanis persuaded older individuals to get involved in investments involving real estate, including those that had affiliations with an international hotel conglomerate and publicly traded entities. Investors were told that their principal was secure and they would make a fixed return of 4.5 to 8% yearly.

Pagartanis’ victims were instructed to write checks to an entity of which he was secretly in control. The former broker used different bank accounts to launder the stolen money that he then spent on his own expenses as well as to pay other investors their “interest or dividend payments” that they were owed. He set up bogus account statements so as to encourage further investing and to hide his fraud.

International Assets Advisory “Proudly” Hires Brokers With “Checkered” Pasts

Published on: December 10, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Florida-based wealth management firm is once again in the headlines over its hiring of brokers with “checkered” pasts. According to a recent Business Insider article, International Assets Advisory (IAA), which oversees approximately $2.5B in customer funds, “proudly hires” brokers that other investment firms wouldn’t even consider, including some with previous offenses on their record.

According to IAA president Ed Cofranceso, the firm’s hiring strategy lets him access a bigger talent pool while allowing some of those whom he employs to get a “second chance.” Cofranceso called his approach “American” and “Christian” and noted the adage about how every story has two sides. For example, the Business Insider article notes, one of the brokers that IAA hired had been fined and fired because his previous firm made him sell “bad products” to investors.

One headhunter interviewed for the news article notes that while the majority of employers will instantly nix any prospective applicants who respond “yes” to even one of nearly six dozen questions on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) U4 registration form, IAA won’t disqualify these individuals right off the bat. Questions asked include whether applicants have been charged for misdemeanors or felonies and if they’ve ever had any “run-ins” with regulators. According to IAA General Counsel Myra Nicholson, candidates with such disclosures whom IAA eventually hires usually have to go through an “on-the-job” audit and may also be subject to more monitoring and certain restrictions.

Options Trading Website Owner Faces Charges in Alleged $4M Online Binary Options Fraud

Published on: December 7, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against Mark Suleymanov, who owns the options trading website SpotFN. According to the regulator, Suleymanov, who is a New York resident, defrauded retail investors of about $4M in a binary options scam that took place from at least 2012 to 2016.

Binary Options

Investor.gov describes a binary option as a kind of options contract upon which payout depends on a “yes/no proposition” outcome and typically involves whether a certain asset’s price will go over or under a set figure. Upon acquisition of the option, a holder no longer has to decide about exercising said binary option because they “exercise automatically.” The holder of a binary option is not entitled to sell or purchase the asset. Upon expiration of the binary option, the holder is given either a cash amount that was previously determined or nothing at all.

FINRA Bars Broker For Selling $10.8M of Notes in $1.2B Woodbridge Ponzi Scam

Published on: December 6, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has barred yet another ex-broker for selling promissory notes that have since been linked to the $1.2B Woodbridge Ponzi scam. The fraud is believed to have bilked around 8,400 investors.

According to the self-regulatory authority (SRO), broker Frank Dietrich sold 58 investors $10M of promissory notes that came from the Woodbridge Group of Companies. 30 of these investors were clients of Quest Capital Strategies, Inc., which was Dietrich’s brokerage firm at the time of the sales. FINRA said that the former Quest Capital broker earned $261K in commissions from selling the Woodbridge investments.

Quest Capital Strategies reportedly did not know that Dietrich was selling the Woodbridge notes to its customers. Earlier this year, the brokerage firm allowed him to step down after finding that he had sold a product it had not approved and for failing to disclose external business activities.

Investment Fraud: Madoff Ponzi Scam Victims Receive Another $695M, Ex-Royal Alliance Associates Investment Adviser Pleads Guilty To Stealing $3M From Customers, and MoneyGram Investor Proposes Lawsuit After $125M Settlement

Published on: December 4, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

DOJ Distributes Another $695M to Over 27,000 Madoff Ponzi Scam Victims

A decade on the heels of Bernard Madoff’s arrest for running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam, the US Justice Department has distributed another $695M to over 27,000 of his victims. This is the DOJ’s third payment to investors of the fraud, bringing the total amount issued to nearly $2B.

In a statement, the DOJ said that it plans to restore more than $4B in total to those who sustained losses in the scheme that went on for decades, harming investors from all walks of life, including:

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup Settle Euribor Investor Case for $180M

Published on: December 3, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A preliminary $182M settlement has been reached in a benchmark rigging lawsuit between investors and banks Citigroup Inc. (C) and JPMorgan & Chase (JPM). Now, a federal judge must approve the deal, which would end claims accusing the two financial firms of manipulating the Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate).

The benchmark interest rate is the average rate at which European banks are able to lend money to each other. It also is a key rate used for establishing certain loans.

It was just earlier this year that Euribor investors arrived at a $309M settlement over allegations that Barclays PLC (PLC), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), and HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBC) had conspired to rig Euribor. Now, as part of this latest Euribor fraud settlement, JPMorgan and Citigroup have agreed to work with investors in their attempts to go after foreign defendant banks who were dropped from this lawsuit last year due to a lack of personal jurisdiction.

Investor Fraud: FINRA Awards Over $1M in Churning Case Against Legend Securities and Morgan Stanley Financial Adviser is Sentenced After Spending Over $950K of Clients’ Money

Published on: November 30, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Legend Securities Ordered to Pay Client For Churning His Funds

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) panel has awarded Herbert W. Voss $1.075M in his securities fraud case against Legend Securities Inc., its ex-chief compliance officer Frank Philip Fusco, and former Legend broker Danard Warthen Brown. Legend is no longer in operation and was expelled by the self-regulatory authority (SRO) in 2012.

Voss reportedly lost $375,000 while Legend was his brokerage firm. Of the more than $1M award granted to Voss, $700K is for punitive damages. His securities fraud lawyer contends that punitive damages were warranted because of how much turnover took place in Voss’s account.

FINRA Suspends Ex-UBS Broker Who is Now With Newbridge Securities

Published on: November 29, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has suspended David Howard Fagenson, a former UBS Financial Services (UBS) broker, for eight months. Fagenson, now registered with Newbridge Securities, is accused of unsuitable trading in the accounts of three older clients.

The allegedly excessive trades are said to have created significant losses for the UBS customers, even as Fagenson and the brokerage firm made hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions and markups for the same transactions. The settlement between the self-regulatory authority (SRO) and the ex-UBS broker states that the trading violations took place between January 2012 and September 2016.

FINRA said that the senior investors that the ex-UBS broker harmed included a 95-year-old widow with an over $5M net worth who had numerous accounts at the firm. While her brokerage account purportedly lost $283K during the period at issue, she paid $260K in markups and commissions.

H. Beck Ordered to Pay $400K for Unsuitable Variable Annuity Sales to Customers

Published on: November 27, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is ordering H. Beck to pay a $400K fine. The self-regulatory authority (SRO) contends that the independent brokerage firm sold variable annuities (VA) to clients even though they were not suitable for some of them.

According to FINRA, of the over 7,000 variable annuity contracts that H. Beck sold, making almost $34.9M in revenue between 1/2013 and 12/2014:

2,835 of those were L-share contracts with quite a number of them tied to long-term riders.