Investor Lawyers Blog

Criminal Cases: Hedge Fund Manager is Sentenced for Bilking Veterans of $1.8M, Charges Brought Over $81M Ponzi Scam Involving Hamilton Tickets, and Indictment in $17M Ponzi Scam is Dropped

Published on: January 30, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Chicago Hedge Fund Manager Gets Over Four Years in $1.8M Fraud
Clayton Cohn is sentenced to more than four years behind bars and he will pay $1.55M in restitution for targeting military veterans in a $1.8M hedge fund fraud. Cohn is an ex-US Marine. He pleaded guilty to the criminal charges against him.

Cohn is accused of pretending to be a successful hedge fund manager to persuade clients to invest with his Marketaction Capital Management. Of the over $1.8M that was invested,he lost more than $1.5M and spent at least $400K on his luxury lifestyle and business investments.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission had brought civil charges against him in 2013 when they accused Cohn of soliciting investors through his Veterans Financial Education Network. The non-profit was supposed to help veterans handle their money. Instead, he diverted some of their funds toward himself. The regulator stayed its case against him following the federal indictments. Now, the civil fraud charges will proceed.

Deutsche Bank Fined $630M Over $10B in Bogus Trades That May Have been Tied to Russian Money Laundering

Published on: January 30, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Deutsche Bank AG will pay UK and US regulators $630M in fines to settle allegations that it did not stop approximately $10B in suspect trades that may have involved laundering money out of Russia. The trades at issue were mirror trades between the German lenders offices in New York, London, and Moscow. They took place between ’11 and ’15.

It was during this time that Russian blue chip stocks were purchased in rubles for clients and sold in the same amount of stocks at the equivalent price through Deutsche Bank’s London office soon after. As a result, reports The Guardian, funds were transferred through the bank to accounts abroad, including in Latvia, Estonia, and Cyprus.

Deutsche Bank is accused of not getting information about customers that took part in the mirror trades. As a result, the bank’s DB Moscow executed over 2400 pairs of mirror trades. Sellers were registered in locations offshore. Shares in Russian companies were paid for in rubles, the sellers were paid in dollars.

Securities Fraud Cases: Ex-Jefferies Bond Trader is Convicted Again, RBS Puts Aside $3.92B for Expected Mortgage-Backed Securities Fraud Settlement, and Judge Won’t Overturn Jury’s Findings In Miami Municipal Bond Fraud Case

Published on: January 29, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Another Jury Finds Ex-Jefferies Group Trader Guilty of RMBS Fraud
A federal jury has convicted Jesse Litvak of one count of securities fraud. The ex-Jefferies Group LLC (JEF) bond trader was tried again on allegations that he bilked customers of $2M when he inflated the prices that he claimed he paid for residential mortgage-backed securities. As a result of his claims, professional investment managers and hedge funds paid too much for bonds.

Another jury had found Litvak guilty of fraud two years ago. However, in 20015, a federal appellate court dismissed parts of the RMBS fraud case against him. The securities fraud charges were retried before a new jury.

During this trial, prosecutors claimed that Litvak’s customers had totally relied on him for bond pricing information. His legal team, however, argued that his customers were sophisticated investors and did what they wanted regardless of his advice.

SEC Cases: Citigroup to Pay $18.3M for Overbilling Clients, Strategic Capital Management is Banned Following $1.3M Cherry Picking Scam, & 10 Investment Advisory Firms Settle Pay-to-Play Violation Charges Involving Pension Fund Fees

Published on: January 27, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Citigroup is Accused of Overcharging At Least 60 Investment Advisory Clients
Citigroup Global Markets (C) will pay $18.3M to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the firm of overbilling clients and misplacing client contracts. According to the regulator’s order, at least 60,000 investment advisory clients were overcharged about $18M in unauthorized fees because Citigroup did not confirm the accuracy of the billing rates in its computer systems compared to the fees noted in client contracts and other documents. The firm also purportedly improperly collected fees even when clients suspended their accounts. The SEC says that the billing mistakes took place over a 15-year period.

The regulator also contends that the investment advisory firm has been unable to locate about 83,000 advisory contracts. Their absence made it impossible for Citigroup to correctly validate whether the fees that clients were billed are the same ones that they negotiated.

The SEC believes that affected clients paid Citigroup about $3.2M in excess fees.

JPMorgan and Schwab Are Sued in 401(K) Lawsuits

Published on: January 27, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Participants in JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (JPM) $21B 401(K) plan are suing the bank. The plaintiffs, who have filed a proposed class-action securities case, claim that the firm caused employees to pay excessive fees of millions of dollars.

According to the complaint, JPMorgan and a number of committee and board members were in breach of their fiduciary duties when they purportedly kept proprietary mutual funds that came from affiliate companies and the bank in the retirement plan for several years even though these options were almost identical to less expensive funds that were not only available but also were performing better.

The plaintiffs contend that during the class period at issue—from ’10-’15—about half of the investment choices in the retirement plan consisted of proprietary funds. They are accusing JPMorgan of keeping up business deals that were lucrative for the firm with BlackRock Institutional Trust Co. , which allowed BlackRock to inundate the 401(k) plan with its funds.

Windsor Street Capital Charged in Connection with Pump-and-Dump Scam

Published on: January 25, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an administrative case against Windsor Street Capital and John D. Telfer, its ex-anti-money laundering officer. The regulator’s enforcement division claims that the New York-based broker dealer did not file Suspicious Activity Reports for $24.8M of suspect transactions, including those connected to an alleged pump-and-dump scam.

The regulator claims that Windsor Street Capital, at the time known as Meyers Associates LP, and Telfer should have been aware of the suspect circumstances involving a lot of these transactions and conducted a probe—in particular, into transactions involving William Goode and Raymond Barton. These men are microcap stock financiers accused of running a multi-million dollar pump-and=dump scam.

The SEC has filed separate charges against them, as well as against Kenneth Manzo, Matthew Briggs, and Justin Sindelman. The five of them are accused of acquiring shares of dormant shell companies that were supposed to be part of the dietary supplement industry, falsely marketing products and news related to the company, and then dumping the shares onto the market for investors to buy at inflated rates.

SEC Issues $7M Whistleblower Award

Published on: January 25, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is awarding $7M, to be split between the three whistleblowers who helped the regulator go after an investment scam. This latest whistleblower award, the second issued this year, ups the collective total that the SEC has granted to 41 whistleblowers to $149M.

Of the $7M, about $4M will go to the whistleblower who gave the SEC information that helped start the regulator’s investigation. The other two whistleblowers, who provided additional new information during the probe, will split the $3M.

To date, SEC enforcement actions resulting from whistleblower tips have led to over $935M in financial remedies. Whistleblowers who provide the tips that lead to successful enforcement actions resulting in at least a $1M remedy are eligible to receive 10-30% of the money collected. Because the SEC is committed to protecting the identity and confidentiality of whistleblowers, details from these enforcement cases that could reveal their identities are kept confidential.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to Pay Over $5.9M to Settle SEC Charges That They Misled Investors About Forex Trading Program

Published on: January 24, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) and Citigroup Global Markets (MS) have settled civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the two firms of making misleading and false statements about the CitiFX Alpha, which is a foreign exchange trading program. Without denying or admitting to the regulator’s findings, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will each pay more than $624K of disgorgement, interest of over $89K, and a $2.25M penalty.

Citigroup’s ownership interest in Morgan Stanley was a 49% stake during the period at issue, from 8/2010 to 11/2011, when the firms’ registered representatives were marketing the CitiFX Alpha to Morgan Stanley customers.

However, according to the regulator, the oral and written representations that these representatives made were based on previous risk metrics and performance. Meantime, they purportedly did not do an adequate enough job of disclosing to investors that the latter could be put into the forex trading program with the use of more leverage than what was promoted, as well as that there would be markups for each trade.

Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Cases: Société Générale Settles US Government’s Securities Fraud Case for $50M & Judge Rules that Institutional Investor Fraud Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank May Proceed

Published on: January 24, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In a deal reached with the US Justice Department, Société Générale will pay $50M to settle civil charges accusing the bank of hiding that the residential mortgaged-backed securities (RMBS) that it promoted and sold were of poor quality. According to the government, the French bank made false representations involving the SG Mortgage Securities Trust 2006-OPT2, a $780M debt issue that it organized more than a decade ago. As part of the settlement, Société Générale admitted that it hid how many of the loans underlying the RMBS shouldn’t have been securitized or were not properly underwritten.

In a statement of facts, Société Générale took responsibility for its conduct. The bank admitted that it falsely represented that loans underlying the residential mortgage-backed security had been originated according to the underwriting guidelines of the loan originator. It also represented to investors that when the SG 2006-OPT2 was originated, no loans in the RMBS had a combined loan-to-value ratio or loan-to-value greater than 100%–this is a claim that Societe General is now admitting was false.

As a result of the bank’s actions, said the DOJ, investors lost “significant” amounts of money and they may lose more. Investors that were impacted include a number of financial institutions that are federally insured.

MC2C Capital Accused of Ponzi Scam, Hedge Fund Fraud

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

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has filed a securities fraud complaint against MC2 Capital. The state regulator is accusing the Boston-area hedge fund of running a Ponzi scam involving three hedge funds: the MC2 Capital Partners Fund, the MC2 Capital Value Partners Fund, and the MC2 Canadian Opportunities Fund. Alleged victims included a local institutional investor that invested $2M.

Galvin has taken action to bar the three MC2 Capital funds along with their fund operator Yasuna Murakami, from engaging in further securities business in Massachusetts. Murakami purportedly took more than $15M from over 45 investors.

He allegedly used investors’ money pay for luxury hotels, alcohol, specialty cars, and other personal expenses. The MC2 Capital Partners Fund, which was the original fund and founded in 2007, was marketed primarily to friends and family. Within a year of operation, however, the fund’s balance was negative and investors’ equity was erased.