Investor Lawyers Blog

Market Rigging: NJ Stock Promoters Face SEC Charges, Another Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges, and Engineer is Accused of Manipulating Fitbit’s Stock

Published on: June 21, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Stock Promoters Accused in Pump-and-Dump Scam
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against James M. Farinella, his Integrated Capital Partners Inc., Anthony Amado, and his Equity Awareness Group with fraud over the alleged inflation and manipulation of a microcap company’s share price. As a result of the alleged pump-and-dump scam, the fraud made over $1M.

According to the regulator, Farinella and his consulting firm controlled almost the whole public float of stock in Pazoo Inc. Farinella paid Amado’s company to promote the microcap issuer and take part in matched trading to make it appear as if there was market activity for the stock. Amado and one of his employees, Carlo Palomino, are accused of enacting the scam, which allowed Farinella to make over $1M when dumping the Pazoo shares.

New Jersey prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Farinella over the microcap fraud allegations.

Securities Fraud: Ex-American Reality Capital Properties CFO is On Trial, Abu Dhabi Investor’s Lawsuit Against Citibank is Revived, and Drivers File Class Action Case Against Juno

Published on: June 20, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former REIT CFO’s Criminal Trial is Under Way
Brian Block, the ex-American Realty Capital Properties CFO, is on trial over his alleged involvement in accounting errors that led to the former Nicholas Schorsch-controlled real estate investment trust’s release of inaccurate financial statements during the first two quarters of 2014. As a result of the inaccuracies, ARCP overstated its adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) by about $12M for the end of that first quarter and by about $10.9M for the second quarter while understating its net losses.

This week, Lisa McAlister, a key witness and ARCP’s ex-chief accounting officer gave testimony. She suggested that Schorsch, the REIT’s CEO and chairman at the time, instructed Block on how to distort the number in the books. Block was McAlister’s boss at ARCP.

McAlister said that she was in the room when Schorsch advised Block on how to hide the fraudulent accounting. McAlister said that Schorsch, who has not been charged with wrongdoing in the accounting mistakes, was instructing Block on how to compensate for a 3-cent shortfall in ARCP’s targeted AFFO/share by fudging a certain line item.

McAlister has already pleaded guilty to fraud charges over ARCP’s accounting irregularities.

$70M Ponzi Scam Leads to 5-Year Prison Term for Texas Man Who Bilked Christian Investors in Affinity Fraud

Published on: June 16, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Stephen J. Hatch, the mastermind of a $70M Arizona Ponzi scam, has been sentenced to five years in prison. Hatch, who pleaded guilty to fraud, targeted Christian investors, causing many of them to lose their life savings.

As part of his plea deal, the Texas man agreed to pay back $1M to investors. Meantime, prosecutors agreed to not file criminal charges against Hatch’s children.

Many of his victims were family members and friends. Hatch persuaded 110 investors to back various real estate properties by promising double digit returns on land deals.

Benchmark Rigging: Deutsche Bank to Pay $170M Over Euribor Fixing Allegations, UK Court Agrees to Hear Libor Swaps Case Against RBS, and Ex-Barclays, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Traders to Face Currency Manipulation Charges in the US

Published on: June 16, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Deutsche Bank Settle Investor Lawsuit Over Euribor Rigging
Deutsche Bank AG (DB) has agreed to pay $170M to resolve an investor fraud lawsuit accusing the German lender of conspiring with other banks to rig Euribor and other derivatives. Euribor is the European Interbank Offered Rate benchmark and the euro-denomination equivalent of Libor, which is the London Interbank Offered Rate.

FrontPoint Australian Opportunities Trust and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) are two of the plaintiffs in the Euribor rigging case against Deutsche Bank. However, the bank, despite settling, is not denying or admitting to wrongdoing. It claims to have decided to resolve the case to avoid more lawsuits and further costs.

A preliminary settlement has been submitted in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Now, a judge must approve the deal.

Jury Finds One Former Nomura Trader Guilty, Acquits Another in RMBS Fraud Case

Published on: June 15, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A jury has found Michael Gramins guilty of conspiracy to lie about mortgage bond prices. Gramins was one of three ex-Nomura (NMR) residential mortgage-backed securities traders charged with fraud and accused of defrauding clients of millions of dollars.

Aside from the guilty RMBS fraud verdict for conspiracy, Gramins was found not guilty of six fraud counts. The jury did not arrive at a verdict on two other charges against him.

Meantime, ex-Nomura trader Tyler Peters was acquitted on all of the criminal fraud charges against him. Although jurors cleared former Nomura trader Ross Shapiro of eight fraud counts, they were unable to arrive at a verdict regarding one conspiracy count against him. It wll be up to prosecutors to decide whether they want to retry Gramins and Shapiro on the counts that were not resolved.

FINRA Promises To Take Tougher Stance With Rogue Brokers

Published on: June 14, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory has barred Lawrence M. Thomas, an ex-Woodbury Financial Services Inc. broker who was under investigation for unauthorized product sales. Thomas was previously registered with Essex Securities.

Last year, Thomas was fined $5K and suspended for three months after he consented to findings that he told an assistant to forge three customers’ signatures on about 10 documents. FINRA had been looking into whether Thomas recommended to Woodbury clients that they purchase an unauthorized product. The self-regulatory organization barred him after he failed to testify in FINRA’s investigation into the claims.

In an unrelated FINRA case, the SRO has filed charges against Kim Dee Isaacson, an ex-Morgan Stanley (MS) broker, for allegedly misleading a client about the size of his account, engaging in unauthorized trading, and attempting to resolve these issues directly with the client instead of along with the firm. According to FINRA, Isaacson told the client that the account was valued at $3.1M even though that was false.

Institutional Investor is Lead Plaintiff In Securities Case Claiming $300M in Shareholder Losses

Published on: June 12, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is now the lead plaintiff in the class action securities fraud case against Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises. The energy company is accused of hiding significant losses. When Babcock & Wilcox finally disclosed that it was having problems, shareholders lost $300M after the stock price fell.

Prior to that disclosure, the company had admitted to losses involving just one plant that it was constructing in Europe. However, last February 28, the company disclosed that the losses had impacted other projects.

The class action securities case alleges misrepresentation and fraud. It names Babcock & Wilcox, CFO Jenny Apker, and CEO Jim Ferland as defendants. The plaintiffs are accusing them of involvement in a scam to fool the market while engaging in conduct to artificially raise the company’s share price through the concealment of issues in its waste-to-energy business. Business Journal reports that investors are referring to B & W’s eventual admission that up to seven of its projects in Europe had collectively suffered $140M in losses last year.

FINRA Claims That It Can’t Stop Firms From Hiring High-Risk Brokers

Published on: June 12, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In interviews with Reuters, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority admitted that even though investors are harmed when broker-dealers hire brokers with checkered histories, there is not much that the regulator can do to stop this practice because it is not illegal. This is undoubtedly causing even more investors to suffer losses as some of these high-risk brokers continue to engage in more misconduct or other violations at their new places of work.

For example, reports the news agency, since 2007 broker Mike McMahon and brokerage firms where he has worked, including National Securities Corporation, have shelled out $1.35M to resolve 10 client cases in which he was purportedly involved. McMahon is currently contending with another four broker fraud cases that were brought by other ex-clients.

One of the reasons the complaints keep coming is because he has been able to move from one firm to another even with the cases that have already been brought against him. Unfortunately, McMahon is not the only one.

US Supreme Court Restricts SEC’s Ability to Recover Monies Made from Illegal Conduct

Published on: June 10, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In Kokesh v. SEC, the US Supreme Court has restricted the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to pursue disgorgement after five years have passed since the fraud alleged led to illegal profits. In a unanimous decision, the nation’s highest court said that that the five-year statute of limitations must be followed.

The securities fraud lawsuit was brought by Charles Kokesh, who was convicted for misappropriating funds from four investment companies that he controlled and using the money to support his expensive lifestyle. In 2015, a judge ordered Kokesh to pay a $2.4M civil penalty.

Additionally, because the SEC considered disgorgement to have no statute of limitations, the judge also ordered the businessman to pay $35M. This is how much he was calculated to have illegally made starting from when he began engaging in his illegal conduct, from 1995 to 2009.
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Bank of America Unit Settles Auction-Rate Securities Fraud Lawsuit by Tutor Perini for $37M

Published on: June 9, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, a Bank of America (BAC) unit will pay Tutor Perini Corp. $37M to settle a securities case accusing the broker-dealer of selling the construction company millions of dollars of auction-rate securities (ARS) without giving it the heads up that the market was likely to experience a “spectacular crash.” Despite settling, neither party is admitting to wrongdoing.

Tutor Perini, which brought its ARS fraud case in 2011, claims that the brokerage firm, then called Banc of America Securities LLC, purposely directed it to buy ARS in 2008 even while knowing that the investments were problematic. By December 2007, the construction company had invested about $196M in ARSs. After the market failed Tutor Perini said that it had no choice but to sell the securities at a huge discount in a secondary market.

A district judge initially granted the broker-dealer summary judgment based on the determination that the construction company did not demonstrate misconduct by the Bank of America unit when the latter sold student loan-backed ARSs. Last year, however, the First Circuit partially reversed that ruling after finding that a jury could potentially determine that at least some of the ARSs bought by the construction company were a result of assessments that proved inaccurate because the broker-dealer did not examine certain key developments. Reviving the lawsuit, the federal appeals court said that dismissing certain Massachusetts state securities fraud claims and federal claims was a mistake.