Investor Lawyers Blog

Investor Fraud: Alleged $100M Future Income Payments Fraud, Capital Investment Group to Pay One Elderly Investor $400K, and Tech Fund Adviser is Now Facing Fraud Charges

Published on: August 24, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Over 1000 Investors May Be Victims of Alleged Future Income Payments Fraud

Dozens of stockbrokers, financial planners, financial advisers, and insurance agents are now the defendants of investor fraud lawsuits over an alleged $100M scam that may have bilked over 1000 investors. Many of these investors were retirees, which means that elder investor fraud may have been involved.

InvestmentNews reports that according to the plaintiffs, the advisers breached their fiduciary obligation and were negligent when they sold them structured cash flows offered by Future Income Payments, LLC. At least 370 investment intermediaries in the US are believed to have sold these investments to investors, with the representatives receiving 6-10% in commissions upfront.

Unregistered Brokers Are Charged With Selling More Than $243M of Woodbridge Securities to Over 1600 Investors

Published on: August 24, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Top10-3 Five unregistered brokers and their companies are now facing US Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing them of selling Woodbridge securities to investors even though they were not registered as broker-dealers and therefore were not allowed to sell these securities. The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars from the Woodbridge securities sales.

The unregistered brokers and their companies are Barry and Ferne Kornfeld and Fek Enterprises, Andrew G. Costa and Costa Financial Insurance Services Corp., Albert D. Klager and Atlantic Insurance & Financial Services Inc., and Lynette M. Robbins and Knowles Systems, Inc. They allegedly sold over $243M of Woodbridge unregistered securities to over 1600 retail investors.

According to the regulator’s complaints, the unregistered brokers and the companies marketed Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC as an investment that was “safe and secure.” Woodbridge, however, declared bankruptcy last December. The moment Woodbridge filed for bankruptcy protection, investors stopped receiving the interest they were due each month and they still haven’t received a return on their principal.

Ex-Wells Fargo Advisors Claim Bank Pressured Them to Sell Products That Charged Higher Fees to High-Net Worth Investors

Published on: August 23, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Yahoo Finance, a number of Wells Fargo (WFC) advisors who used to work for the Private Bank’s wealth management unit are claiming that the firm pushed them to place client funds in investments that charged higher fees to clients. The ex-bank employees contend that they were pressured to cross-sell products and bill clients for fees that they would not have had to pay otherwise.

Yahoo Finance reported that there are internal company documents verifying the former employees’ claims. The media outlet said that it conducted interviews with a number of these former advisors.

The ex-Wells Fargo advisors were reportedly encouraged to place clients’ funds in complex products and separately managed accounts. The advisors claim that they were told that if they did not meet sales quotas for certain products, their compensation would suffer.

Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP Investigating Claims Involving Puerto Rico UBS Bond Funds

Published on: August 21, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

San Juan, Puerto Rico – October 3, 2013

Lawyers with the Securities Law Firm of Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP, are investigating claims involving Puerto Rico UBS bond funds. UBS has been the most prominent broker-dealer operating in Puerto Rico for a number of years. As a result, many, if not most, individuals in Puerto Rico with brokerage accounts use UBS, resulting in UBS managing roughly $10 billion of assets of Puerto Rico residents.

Unfortunately, UBS recommended that many of these clients make significant investments in proprietary UBS bond funds. These UBS bond funds, such as the Tax-Free Puerto Rico Fund II, invest primarily in Puerto Rico municipal bonds.

GPB Capital Holdings Stops Selling Private Placements in GPB Funds to Investors

Published on: August 20, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

With already $1.8B in investor funds, GPB Capital Holdings is now placing a pause on raising more funds while it concentrates on putting in order the accounting and financial statements of two of its biggest funds, the GPB Automotive Portfolio and the GPB Holdings II. Both, collectively have raised nearly $1.3B in investor money. To date, the two funds have paid brokers $100.1M in sales commissions.

The halt comes after GPB Capital, which is a top seller of risky private placements and concentrates on purchasing auto dealerships, missed its April deadline to file financial statements for the two funds with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. According to GPB Capital CEO David Gentile, in a letter that InvestmentNews was able to get a copy of, the delay in filing is a result of having to deal with accounting standards that mandate the two funds generate yearly audited financial statements that must be in compliance with SEC regulations, as well as with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s standards.

Gentile, who headed up his own accounting and advisory firm before launching GPB in 2013, said that “best practices and efficient reporting are a top priority”— hence the temporary halt in accepting money from new investors. Meantime, fund redemptions have been suspended and reportedly will resume after the financial statements and public filings are submitted.

Alleged $135M Ponzi Scam Involving Equitybuild

Published on: August 18, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing Equitybuild Inc., a real estate investment firm that is based in Florida, and its owners of operating a $135M Ponzi scam that defrauded approximately 900 investors. The regulator contends that the company, its President/CEO Jerome Cohen, and Vice President Shaun Cohen, who are father and son, promised investors double-digit returns of 12-20%, even as their business was incurring massive losses. Meantime, investors were paid returns using earlier investors’ money in Ponzi-like fashion.

Equitybuild investors were mostly unsophisticated, non-accredited investors without much experience in investing in real estate. The Cohens allegedly touted a purportedly original strategy for identifying an undervalued property in Chicago, Illinois’ South Side that they claimed would render huge returns. Investors were promised promissory notes that named a specific property. Third parties were supposed to buy the properties with mortgages that the investors had funded and this would generate returns.

Unfortunately, there don’t appear to have been many third-party buyers. Equitybuild was the one that owned most of the properties and the real estate investment company purportedly stopped searching for third-party buyers a few years ago.

Securities Cases: Goldman Sachs Investors Can Proceed with $13B CDO Fraud Litigation, Deutsche Bank Resolves Self-Dealing Lawsuit for $21.9M, and Elkhorn Capital Group Founder is Accused in $2.5M ETF Fraud

Published on: August 17, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Shareholders Can Proceed with $13B CDO Fraud Case Against Goldman Sachs

A US district court judge has given Goldman Sachs (GS) shareholders the right to move forward with their $13B collateralized debt obligation fraud lawsuit accusing the bank of not disclosing certain conflicts of interest. Judge Paul A. Crotty granted the investors’ case class action certification.

The CDO fraud lawsuit revolves around investments that Goldman Sachs created and sold prior to the collapse of the housing market. According to the plaintiffs, the bank made false and misleading statements and acted counter to clients’ best interests.

Larry Dearman, Sr. Ponzi Scheme Investigation

Published on: August 16, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The attorneys with the law firm of Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas LLP are currently investigating claims involving Larry Dearman, Sr. Larry Dearman moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 2005, when he began working as a financial advisor in the area. He was registered both with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) as a broker, as well as being registered as an investment advisor representative, which is done through the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Since 2005, Mr. Dearman has been registered with Cambridge Legacy Securities, LLC, Securities America, Inc., Brecek & Young Advisors, and The Focus Group Advisors.

Recently, Mr. Dearman was charged by the SEC, along with a woman named Marya Gray, of defrauding a number of his clients in a variety of ways. According to the SEC complaint, Mr. Dearman solicited his clients to invest in an internet company and a real estate company, among others, telling those customers that these investments bore very little risk and were good investment opportunities. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Mr. Dearman specifically solicited clients of his who had known him and his family for decades, members of his church, and people who know of him as a popular wedding singer. All told, he collected almost $5 million from various clients for these investments.

The SEC alleges that, in reality, the money was being stolen by Mr. Dearman and his cohort, Marya Gray. They were making Ponzi scheme style payments to earlier investors to keep those individuals complacent and to avoid arousing suspicion, all the while stealing the rest of the funds and spending it on themselves. The SEC also claims that Ms. Gray has admitted that the real estate business had never actually conducted any business, which would add substantial credence to the fraudulent nature of these investments.

Ameriprise Financial to Pay $4.5M Over Alleged Failure to Protect Investors

Published on: August 15, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In a settlement reached with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ameriprise Financial Services (AMP) will pay $4.5M over allegations that it did not protect retail investors from five of their financial representatives, who stole over $1.5M. Three of these individuals had previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges involving investor fraud.

The Commission charged Ameriprise, a registered investment adviser and brokerage firm, with inadequate supervision of the representatives and for not having policies and procedures that were “reasonably designed” enough to stop them from misappropriating clients’ monies.

Ameriprise, despite setting, is not denying or admitting to the regulator’s findings. However, it consented to a censure.

Securities Fraud Allegations Against Former Merrill Lynch/RBC Financial Adviser Could Lead to More Unauthorized Trading and Failure to Supervise Claims

Published on: August 14, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Earlier this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission barred ex-RBC broker Thomas Buck from the industry. The action came less than four months after the regulator filed a civil case accusing Buck of investor fraud. He allegedly made material misrepresentations and omissions to investment advisory clients and certain customers while he was a Merrill Lynch financial adviser in order to get get paid excess fees and commissions.

As a result, more than 50 customers and clients under Buck ended up paying over $2.5M unnecessarily.

Buck also allegedly did not tell clients that they could have saved money if only they’d opted for a fee-based payment structure instead of the commission model. Meantime, he’d told Merrill Lynch compliance staff on several occasions that the clients knew about the less costly options.