Investor Lawyers Blog

Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, and Neuberger Berman Grapple with 401K lawsuits

Published on: October 18, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A plaintiff who is a participant in Wells Fargo’s 401(K) plan is suing the bank. The individual claims that the company’s cross-selling scandal has caused its stock price to drop significantly and this has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to the retirement plan.

It was just last month that regulators imposed a $185M fine on Wells Fargo for setting up 2.1 million credit card accounts and unauthorized deposits for banking customers so as to satisfy sales quotas. Some employees allegedly set up debit cards for customers without their knowledge, even assigning them PIN numbers.

Although Wells Fargo is settling with the Los Angeles City Attorney, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it is not denying or admitting to the allegations.

Artis Capital Management Accused of Not Preventing $6M Insider Trading

Published on: October 17, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A San Francisco-based hedge fund advisory firm has agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges alleging its failure to notice that one its employees was engaged in insider trading. Artis Capital Management will disgorge the more than $5.1M in illicit rating profits made by employee Matthew G. Teeple for the firm plus over $1.1M of interest. The hedge fund firm will also pay a more than $2.5M penalty.

According to the regulator, Artis Capital did not maintain policies and procedures adequate enough to prevent insider trading from taking place at the firm. The Commission contends that Teeple’s supervisor, Michael W. Harden, did not respond as needed when red flags arose to indicate that Teeple was engaging in wrongful behavior.

To settle the SEC charges against him, Harden will pay a $130K penalty and serve a 1-year suspension from the securities industry. He and Artis Capital consented to the regulator’s order. However, they did not deny or admit to the Commission’s findings.

FINRA Actions: Former UBS Broker Is Barred for Overvaluing Customer’s Account by Up to $3M, Ex-Broker Allegedly Stole $400K From Parents, Wells Fargo Adviser is Suspended After Client is Victimized in Phishing Scam, and Former Stifel Broker is Accused of Unauthorized Payments

Published on: October 15, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-UBS Broker is Accused of Inflating Customer’s Account

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has barred Jeffrey Hamilton Howell from the broker-dealer industry. The former broker is accused of giving a customer bogus weekly account statements that overvalued an account by up to $3M. The alleged misconduct is said to have occurred between 9/2008 and 11/2014.

According to FINRA, Howell sent the customer over 300 Stock Tracking Reports that misstated the client’s portfolio in amounts ranging from $289K to approximately $3M. He purportedly used his personal e-mail to send the customer some of the fake reports. This left UBS with records and books that were not accurate.

SEC Cases: Och-Ziff Hedge Fund Settles FCPA Violation Charges for $413M, Employee is Accused of Insider Trading Prior to Drug Announcement, and Company Pays Fine After Firing Whistleblower

Published on: October 14, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NY Hedge Fund to Pay $413M to Settle Civil and Criminal Charges Over FCPA Violations

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has settled both criminal and civil charges accusing the New York hedge fund of paying bribes to obtain business in Africa. This is the first hedge fund to face punishment over violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

As part of its settlement with the SEC, Och-Ziff will pay almost $200M to the Commission. Meantime, the hedge fund’s CEO, Daniel S. Och, will pay the regulator almost $2.2M to resolve charges accusing him of causing certain violations. CFO Joel M. Frank also agreed to settle the SEC the charges against him and will pay a penalty.

Forcerank Will Pay $50K Fine for Illegally Offering Security-Based Swap Offering to Retail Investors

Published on: October 13, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission probe, Forcerank LLC will pay a penalty of $50K for illegally offering complex derivatives products to retail investors. The company did this via mobile phone games referred to as “fantasy sports for stocks.” Forcerank is settling the case without deny or admitting to the findings that it violated sections of the Securities Exchange Act and the Securities Act.

The SEC’s order said that Forcerank’s mobile phone games involved players predicting the order that 10 securities performed against one another.. Players earned points and sometimes even money prizes according to how accurately they predicted the outcomes. The New York-based company earned 10% of entry fees, as well as developed a data set regarding market expectations that it intended to sell to investors, including hedge funds.

The SEC said that the agreements between players and Forcerank were security-based swaps since they provided for a payment contingent upon an event linked to a possible commercial, economic, or financial result and were determined by individual securities’ values. The Commission also claims that Forcerank LLC neglected to submit a registration statement for a security-based swap offering and did not sell contracts using a national securities exchange. Both are required to make sure that full transparency about a security-based swap offering is provided to retail investors and transactions are restricted to platforms that are under the highest regulation.

Deutsche Bank Reaches $9.5B Settlement With the SEC For Not Properly Safeguarding Information

Published on: October 12, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Deutsche Bank Securities (DB) will pay a $9.5B penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for not properly safeguarding material nonpublic research information. Even though it is settling, Deutsche Bank is not denying or admitting to the findings.

According to the regulator, Deutsche Bank urged its equity research analysts to communicate often with trading personnel, sales staff, and customers, but it did not have in place the proper procedures and policies to stop analysts from disclosing certain information, such as analyses and views that hadn’t been published yet, estimate changes, trading day squawks, short-term trading recommendations, non-deal road shows, and idea dinners. The SEC’s order also found that the bank had put out a research report that had a “BUY” rating for Big Lots, the discount retailer, but that the rating did not line up with the perspective of the analyst who had prepared and certified it as accurate.

This particular individual, analyst Charles Grom, had told others that the discount retailer should have gotten a downgrade. Grom was eventually charged by the SEC with certifying a stock rating in a manner that was not consistent with his own views. He settled the charges with a suspension from the securities industry and by agreeing to pay a $100K penalty.

Hedge Funds Holding Puerto Rico General Obligation Bonds File Lawsuit

Published on: October 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A number of hedge funds with Puerto Rico general obligation bonds want a court to stop the U.S. territory from using its sales-tax revenue to pay back other debt. Those hedge funds say that such an action is a violation of the Commonwealth’s constitution.

To date, the Commonwealth owes nearly $13 billion of general obligation bonds. Under its constitution, Puerto Rico is required to pay back its general obligation bonds before paying off other expenses. According to the plaintiffs, part of the territory’s’ sales tax revenue is supposed to go toward that repayment.

The plaintiffs sued Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla to stop the territory from moving money away from bondholders, which they say violates the new federal law concerning Puerto Rico, called PROMESA. The hedge funds submitted their amended complaint last week, in which they added the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp., commonly called COFINA, as a defendant. The plaintiffs include entities under the management of Aurelius Capital Management, Covalent Partners, Autonomy Capital, Monarch Alternative Capital, FCO Advisors, and Stone Lion Capital Partners.

San Francisco Hedge Fund Files Securities Fraud Lawsuit Against Blood Testing Company Theranos

Published on: October 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Wall Street Journal and other media are reporting that Theranos is now the defendant of a securities fraud lawsuit brought by one of its major investors. The plaintiff is San Francisco hedge fund Partner Fund Management, which is one of the blood testing company’s largest financial backers. Partner, which brought its case in the Delaware Court of Chancery, is seeking damages beyond its investment and costs related to the lawsuit.

Although the complaint is under seal, Partner has confirmed that it has brought a legal case against the beleaguered blood testing company. According to a letter, which the hedge fund sent to investors, Theranos took part in “lies, material misstatements, and omissions” to persuade Partner to invest in the company. The letter notes that Theranos CEO/founder Elizabeth Holmes and ex-President Sunny Balwani are also defendants in the case.

Partner Fund believes that Holmes was deceptive when claiming that Theranos’s proprietary technologies were working and close to receiving regulatory approvals. Meantime, Theranos has stated that it would combat the securities fraud lawsuit.

RBS Securities Settles MBS Fraud Case With Connecticut for $120M

Published on: October 10, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) subsidiary RBS Securities Inc. will pay the state of Connecticut $120M to settle allegations related to its dealings with mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. According to state officials, RBS played a part in the crisis when it neglected to do the proper due diligence around certain tools for mortgage-backed investments. They accused the subsidiary of unethical and dishonest behavior, as well as of making false statements.

They contend that RBS, which was one of the largest underwriters of residential mortgage-backed securities, did not make sure that the information it offered about RMBS deals was accurate. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said that he and the state’s Department of Banking worked together in investigating this matter.

RBS doesn’t securitize newly originated RMBSs anymore. It was, however, the lead underwriter for approximately 250 residential mortgage-backed securities between ’05 and ’08. Part of its job was to perform the due diligence on mortgage loans used for collateral. However, Connecticut claims that RBS’s due diligence was “inadequate,” causing “omissions and misstatements” to be made to the public and investors. They even contend that in certain instance, RBS rated certain loans that had already been lower rated by third-party vendors with higher-grade ratings.

Texas Securities Cases: IMS Securities to Pay $100K Over Variable Annuity Exchanges, State Regulator Bans Broker from Making Nontraded REIT Recommendations, and Former Dallas Billionaire Sam Wyly to Pay $198M To Settle Fraud Case

Published on: October 10, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Texas-Based Brokerage Firm Accused of Inadequate Supervision Involving VA Exchanges

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is ordering IMS Securities Inc. to pay a $100K fine. The Texas-based brokerage firm is accused of failures related to its monitoring of variable annuity exchanges. By settling, however, it is not denying or admitting to the allegations.

According to the self-regulatory authority, the firm exhibited inadequate supervisory procedures for “problematic rates of exchange” in transactions involving variable annuities. FINRA claims that from 7/ 15/13 through 7/8/14, IMS Securities depended on its CFO to review annuity exchanges but did not provide tools or guidance to help look for “problematic rates of exchange.” The broker-dealer is accused of not probing possibly “problematic patterns” of VA exchanges and not enforcing written supervisory procedures related to consolidated reports.