Investor Lawyers Blog

Criminal Securities Fraud: Former Train Babcock Financial Adviser Pleads Guilty In $1.6M Family Trust Theft, Prosecutors Go After Former Cantor Fitzgerald Trader for RMBS Fraud, & Two NJ Traders Are Charged in $26M Stock Rigging Case

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

Financial Advisor Admits to Stealing $1.6M From Family’s Trusts
Brian Keenan, an ex-financial advisor, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges accusing him to stealing over $1.6M from three trusts belonging to members of the same family. Keenan had been employed with Train Babcock Advisors from about 5/2007 to 8/2012. It was during this time that the former financial adviser stole over $1.6M from the beneficiaries of three trusts.

Not only did Keenan take their money, but he also spent the funds on his own expenses. He set up a joint checking account under his name and the name of one of the beneficiaries, and he issued over 40 checks from the trust accounts to the joint account. The beneficiary under whose name he co-opened the account did not have access to it.

Issuing a statement about the financial fraud case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance reminded the public that a financial adviser’s main duty is to act in a client’s best interest. Vance said that rather than fulfilling that obligation, Keenan took advantage of his clients. Keenan pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the First Degree.

Former LPL Financial Adviser/North Carolina Broker Is Sentenced in $1.4M Ponzi Scam

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

Charles Caleb Fackrell is sentenced 63 months behind bars and three years of court supervision. The 36-year-old former North Carolina financial adviser, who worked with LPL Financial (LPLA), pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud earlier this year. He now must pay his victims nearly $820K in restitution.

According to court documents, Fackrell ran an investment scam from approximately 5/2012 to 12/2014. During this time, he solicited about $1.4M from at least 20 investors. The companies he ran included Robin Hood LLC, Robin Hood Holdings LLC, Robinhood LLC, and Robinhood Holdings LLC.

Prosecutors contend that instead of using investors’ money as intended, Fackrell enriched himself in what North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has described as “one of the most vicious financial crimes” the state has seen.

$11B RMBS Fraud Lawsuit Against Credit Suisse to Proceed

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

According to the Appellate Division, First Department in New York, the state’s attorney general can move forward with his $11B investor fraud case against Credit Suisse (CS). The state appeals court decided that in this residential mortgage-backed securities lawsuit, a six-year statute of limitations and not a three-year one was applicable.

The civil case was brought in Manhattan Supreme Court four years ago. It accuses the several of the bank’s units of wrongly persuading investors to buy toxic residential mortgage-backed-securities in 2006 and 2007. The complaint states that 24% of Credit Suisse’s loans that were tied to RMBS from those two years were liquidated. Investors went on to sustain $11.2B in losses.

In a 3-2 ruling, the justice’s panel said that NY AG Eric Schneiderman’s fraud claims are ones that may have been brought prior to the writing of the statute. As a result, wrote the justices, the lengthier statute of limitations is to what this case is subject.

Prudential Stops Selling My Term Life Insurance Policies Through Wells Fargo

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

This week, Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU) announced that is no longer distributing certain term life insurance policies, including its My Term product, through Wells Fargo’s (WFC) retail bank. The decision comes after Prudential employees filed a complaint claiming they were let go because they reported certain sales practices related to insurance policies. The insurer says it intends to probe the “full extent of abuses” that may have resulted from the Wells Fargo-related transactions. Prudential sold about 15,000 My Term accounts through the bank.

The employee lawsuit is Julie Han Broderick et al v. The Prudential Insurance Co. of America et al. The three plaintiffs, which include Han Broderick, Thomas Schreck, and Darron Smith, are seeking unspecified damages for wrongful termination. Prudential, however, claims that the reasons they were let go have nothing to do with its business with Wells Fargo but, rather, were related to an ethics complaint.

According to the NY Times, the ex-employees filed their complaint against Prudential and a regulatory officer, contending the following:

They were let go as retaliation for their whistleblowing activities involving Wells Fargo’s allegedly fraudulent practices around the sales of My Term insurance policies
The plaintiffs (formerly supervisors in Prudential’s investigative division of its legal department) believe the purported fraud was due to Wells Fargo cross-selling programs
They were fired because they would not take part in PRudential’s alleged cover-up of fraudulent and unlawful business practices it engages in with Wells Fargo Bank

Massachusetts Regulator Accuses Broker-Dealers of Not Properly Supervising Rogue Brokers

Published on: December 9, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to the Massachusetts Securities Division, brokerage firms that hire brokers with troubled disciplinary records are not doing a proper job of supervising them. The state, which recently released its findings from its examination of 241 broker-dealers who are registered in the state and retain an above average number of rogue brokers, said that this relaxed way of self-policing could be harming investors.

According to the division’s report, not a lot of these brokers were put on more rigorous supervision despite their questionable pasts. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said that it appeared to his office that certain firms were not willing to take on the duty of “zealously monitoring” the way these brokers were interacting customers.

It was in June that the Massachusetts Securities Division announced it was cracking down on broker-dealers who hired rogue brokers. The news of its sweep came soon after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced it was conducting its own probe.

SEC’s Whistleblower Office Awards Another $3.5M to Tipster

Published on: December 8, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded another whistleblower for coming forward with information that has resulted in a successful enforcement action. This time the award amount is $3.5M. This latest award ups the total awarded by the regulator’s whistleblower program to about $135M to 36 individuals since 2012. The award comes a few weeks after the SEC announced it had issued $20M to another whistleblower in a different enforcement case.

The regulator awards individuals, who voluntarily come forward with original and useful information, 10 to 30% of monetary sanctions collected from a successful enforcement action, as long as that sum collected is greater than $1M. To date, whistleblower tips have allowed the SEC to bring enforcement actions resulting in over $874M in financial remedies. Because the whistleblower’s anonymity is protected, details about each case that could expose the tipster’s identify are kept confidential.

Whistleblower Retaliation
Individuals who turn whistleblowers are supposed to be protected from retaliation under the Dodd Frank Act. However that isn’t always the case. Now, an ex-Vanguard Group employee has filed a lawsuit accusing the firm of firing her because she engaged in whistleblower activity.

FINRA Anti-Money Laundering Cases Render Huge $1M Fine for Wells Fargo and $16.5M Fine for Credit Suisse

Published on: December 7, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Wells Fargo Fined $1M Over Supervision of Consolidated Client Reports

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that Wells Fargo (WFC) must pay a $1M fine for not having reasonable supervisory systems in place to oversee the generation of consolidated reports for clients. The broker-dealers that were specifically cited were Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (WFAFN) and Wells Fargo Advisors (WFA), also referred to as Wells Fargo Clearing Services.They agreed to settle but did not admit or deny the settlement’s findings.

FINRA’s rules mandate that consolidated reports, which are documents that include information about a customer’s financial holdings, even if they are held in different places, must be accurate, clear, and not misleading. According to the regulator, between 6/2009 and 6/2015, the brokerage firms did not enforce supervisory systems for the use of consolidated reports that registered representatives generated via a specific application. During the relevant period, Wells Fargo advisers used the application to create over five million company reports.

Massachusetts Regulator Sues LPL Financial Over Broker’s Alleged Variable Annuity Abuses Involving Retirees

Published on: December 7, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin has filed charges against LPL Financial (LPLA) for its alleged failure to supervise one of its brokers. Roger Zullo is accused of bilking clients for years by selling variable annuities to retirees even though the investments were not suitable for them.

In his complaint, Galvin contends that Zullo lied to supervisors and generated false client financial suitability profiles so he could sell scores of high-commission, illiquid VAs to make money for himself and the firm. Because of these investments, said the state regulator, many older clients were unable to access their funds for years.

The complaint notes that for three years, Zullo and LPL received over $1.8M in VA commissions from sales. The Polarius Platinum III (B Shares) VA appeared to be the source of a large chunk of the commissions. Galvin said that of the more than $1.8M in VA annuity commissions that Zullo was able to generate, over $1.7M of it came from this particular variable annuity, which paid a 7% commission. 90% of this went to Zullo, while his firm received the rest. Also, clients whom Zullo could convince to move to the Polaris Platinum variable annuity usually had to pay surrender charges.

UBS Ordered To Pay More Than $18 million in Puerto Rico Closed-End Bond Fraud Arbitration Award

Published on: December 6, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel says that UBS Financial Services (UBS) must pay $18.6 million to customers Rafael Vizcarrondo and Mercedes Imbert De Jesus for their losses from investing in Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds. The two investors, both UBS clients, accused the broker-dealer of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and other securities violations. They claim that UBS placed their money in unsuitable investments and did not properly supervise the broker who worked with them. As part of the award, Impert De Jesus and Vizcarrondo will receive $12.7 million in compensatory damages, $2.5 million of interest, $3.2 million in legal fees and $163,000 in expert witness fees.

Vizcarrondo is a prominent lawyer in Puerto Rico. His legal team said that UBS had attempted to portray him as a “sophisticated” investor, someone who should have known what he was getting involved in when he invested in the territory’s bonds. The firm described Vizcarrondo as having been “fully informed” when he decided to concentrate his investments in UBS’s Puerto Rico closed-end funds. However, as Vizcarrondo’s attorney noted, not all professionals are “sophisticated investors.” Based on its decision, the FINRA arbitration panel obviously agreed with the claimant.

This is the largest FINRA arbitration award issued over Puerto Rico bond funds to date. There are over a thousand cases still pending. These claims were brought by investors seeking to recover the financial losses they suffered from investing in the island’s beleaguered securities. Although a number of firms, including Banco Santander (SAN), Banco Popular, Merrill Lynch and others have been named in Puerto Rico bond and closed-end bond fraud claims, UBS and affiliate UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico (UBS-PR) have been the largest target of these claims. In fact, the TheStreet.com reports that on November 2, UBS AG, the parent company of UBS and UBS-PR, notified the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a filing that about $1.9 billion in Puerto Rico municipal bond funds and closed-end fund claims have been brought against it. The firm has already paid out $740 million to claimants.

US Supreme Court Issues Ruling that Impacts The Definition of Insider Trading

Published on: December 6, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court justices ruled that prosecutors in insider trading cases don’t always have to demonstrate that something of value was exchanged to prove that the crime happened. The court’s ruling comes two years after another decision, in United States v. Newman, raised questions regarding what comprises insider-trading. That decision led to the dismissal of a number of insider trading cases.

This week, however, in Salman v. United States, the nation’s highest court gave the government back some of the power it lost in the earlier federal court case. The justices’ opinion upheld the prosecution of Bassam Salman, a man convicted of insider trading.

Salman admitted to trading on the information given to him by his brother-in-law Maher Kara, a Citigroup (C) investment banker. Prosecutors accused him of making $1.5M by trading on tips about biomedical company acquisitions involving Citigroup clients.