Investor Lawyers Blog

Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas Investigates Jeffery Vasiloff, Former LPL Financial Advisor

Published on: October 9, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Cleveland, Ohio

Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas (“SSEK”), a law firm specializing in representing wronged investors, is looking at allegations by FINRA into former Linsco Private Ledger (LPL) financial advisor, Jeffery Vasiloff (“Vasiloff”). Vasiloff worked at LPL in 2018 and was not employed very long. Vasiloff was fired, according to FINRA, due to allegations of utilizing discretion without obtaining the proper written authority. As a result, he was also suspended from acting as a financial advisor by FINRA. He previously worked at Invest Financial Corporation and appears to be based out of Vermilion, Ohio. After serving his suspension, Vasiloff became employed by JW Cole Financial.

Vasiloff never admitted nor denied FINRA’s finding. However, he consented to the sanctions imposed and accepted the findings that he acted improperly by refusing to obtain prior consent, in writing, from the client before acting on that client’s behalf. LPL simply reported to FINRA that Vasiloff was discharged for “use of discretion without prior written authorization.”

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Files Investor Fraud Lawsuit Against Money Concepts Capital for GPB Capital Sales

Published on: October 8, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

GPB Capital Sales: SSEK Files Investor Fraud Lawsuit Against Money Concepts Capital

Two investors in Alabama are pursuing a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) claim against Money Concepts Capital Corp. These investors sustained losses after one of the independent brokerage firm’s longtime registered representatives recommended that they purchase GPB Capital private placements.

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LLP (SSEK Law Firm) is representing both claimants in their investor fraud claim.

Three Ex-Morgan Stanley Brokers Accused of Broker Misconduct

Published on: October 7, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Misconduct Accusations Against Ex-Morgan Stanley Brokers

Broker Misconduct Case #1: John Tillotson

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has suspended ex-Morgan Stanley broker, John Tillotson, for 15 days and ordered him to pay a $5K fine after finding that he impersonated five clients during phone calls to a mutual fund company. This was so he could move their retirement money to the firm.

Raymond James To Pay $15M for Improper Advisory Fees and Commission Charges

Published on: October 3, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Three Raymond James entities — Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc., and Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. (RJF) — have agreed to pay $15M to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges accusing the brokerage firm of charging excess commissions to customers that invested in certain united investment trusts (UITs) and, also, of improperly charging advisory fees to retail client accounts that were no longer active. As part of the settlement, the Raymond James entities will issue distributions to investors who were affected.

According to the SEC’s cease-and-desist order, from at least 1/2013 through 5/2018, Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services Advisors:

Didn’t not perform suitability reviews as promised.

SSEK Law Firm Investigates Ex-Broker James T. Flynn and Voya Financial Advisors

Published on: October 3, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

If you are an investor who suffered financial losses while working with former Voya Financial Advisors (VOYA) broker James T. Flynn, please contact Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LLP (SSEK Law Firm) today.

Our broker fraud lawyers are investigating claims brought by the former clients of Mr. Flynn while he was a registered broker with Voya Financial from 2013 to 2017 and previous to that while he worked with other financial firms. Voya fired him in 2017.

With 18 years of experience in the industry, Flynn, who was barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in 2018 after he failed to respond to the self-regulatory organization (SRO)’s request for more information in a probe involving him, has forty disclosures on his BrokerCheck record.

Alleged $125M Offering Fraud Touted “Highly Profitable” Trading Strategy

Published on: October 2, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has secured an asset freeze against three people and entities accused of operating a $125M offering fraud. The regulator contends that the international trading program, run by Mediatrix Capital, Inc. and its principals Michael Stewart, Michael Young, and Bryant Sewall, touted an algorithmic trading strategy that was supposedly “highly profitable,” had never experienced a month when it didn’t make money, and rendered over 1600% of returns.

The SEC contends that the reality was a very different story, with the trading strategy regularly losing money–over $18M from trading just in 2018. The Commission is accusing the defendants of the following:

- Misrepresentations involving the trading strategy’s ability to make money

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.

Fraudulent Binary Options Led to Tens of Millions of Dollars in Investor Losses

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

Three non-US citizens, Raz Beserglik, Gil Beserglik, and Kai Christian Peterson, are now facing US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges accusing them of causing investors, including retirees, of losing tens of millions of dollars through the sale of fraudulent binary options via their binary options brokers Morton Finance, Bloombex Options, and Starling Capital. The brokerage firm are also defendants in the regulator’s case.

According to SEC Enforcement Davison Associate Director Melissa Hodgman, investors were promised fast profits. Instead, most of them lost money, with some of them losing all of their life savings.

The regulator’s complaint said that through call centers that were run like boiler rooms in Italy and Germany, salespeople contacted prospective clients and used high pressure tactics to get them to buy speculative binary options. As a result, from 2012 through 2016, investors from the US and elsewhere gave Bloombex Options over $80M to invest. Morton Finance, meantime, had gotten over 8,000 investors to deposit more than $14.75M by 2016. Over 2,700 investors deposited almost three million through Starling Capital. The brokers continued to accept investor funds at least through 2017.

SSEK Investigates Stockbroker Eddie Lyons of Raymond James & Associates

Published on: September 30, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SSEK Investigates Eddie Lyons Of Raymond James & Associates

Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas (“SSEK”), a law firm specializing in representing wronged investors, is looking into allegations against Eddie Lyons as noted by FINRA. Lyons was a financial advisor registered with Raymond James & Associates, Inc. He was terminated, in part, due to allegations by his clients that he engaged in unauthorized trading of accounts.

FINRA then initiated an investigation in November 2017. The inquiry was based on several complaints from customers. The allegations ran the gambit of bad acts. These include, but may not be limited to, unauthorized trading.

Strong Investment Management and Laurel Wealth Advisors Settle Cherry Picking Allegations

Published on: September 30, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A final judgment has been reached in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) fraud case against Strong Investment Management. The investment adviser, based in California, and its owner James Bronson are accused of running a cherry picking scam that harmed clients and went on for over four years. Now, they will pay $1.2M.

Strong has more than six dozen clients and Bronson had sole discretion regarding how to allocate trades that the firm made. The SEC brought its complaint against both of them early last year, with Bronson accused of using the investment adviser’s omnibus account to trade securities while delaying their allocations to different client accounts until he’d seen how the trades had performed throughout the day. Bronson would then allegedly “cherry pick” the trades by giving himself a disproportionate amount of the profitable trades while a similar disproportionate number of unprofitable ones were sent to clients. As a result, Bronson “reaped substantial profits” that he would not have otherwise.

Bronson and Strong are also accused of misrepresenting their allocation and trading practices in their Form ADV, which falsely stated that no accounts had been given preference when trades were divvied up. Now, they are liable for nearly $961K of disgorgement and over $100K of prejudgment interest. They must pay a $184,767 civil penalty.