Investor Lawyers Blog

Raymond James Sued Over $350M Development Fraud, Settles with Vermont for $5.95M

Published on: June 30, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A receiver appointed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Raymond James Financial Inc. (RJF) over its alleged involvement in a $350M development fraud. The case stems from a complaint that the regulator filed earlier this year against William Stenger and Ariel Quiros. Along with their companies, the two of them are accused of making omissions and false statements when raising funds from foreign investors to supposedly build a biomedical research facility and ski resort facilities.

Raymond James and its employees are not defendants in that lawsuit. However, the firm is mentioned in the complaint to have received wire transfers starting in 2008 from a Vermont bank. The money went to brokerage accounts at Raymond James and they were in Quiros’s name. The funds were from investors and intended for the Peak resort in Vermont.

Quiros went on to borrow against the money in his Raymond James accounts that included high interest margin loans. He purportedly used investor money to pay almost $2.5M in margin interest loans to Raymond James.

Financial Representative News: Ex-LPL Financial Broker Gets Suspension and Fine & Former Ex-GL Capital Partners CEO is Sentenced to Prison

Published on: June 30, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-LPL Financial Supervisor Settles with FINRA

Peter Neuberg, a former LPL Financial (LPLA) supervisor and broker, will pay a $15K fine and serve a six-month suspension to settle claims accusing him of not reasonably supervising a registered representative. According to an enforcement document signed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Neuberg stopped looking at paperwork that the representative prepared. This made it possible for the broker to modify documents about customer accounts and reuse signatures from forms that had been completed. Neuberg is settling without admitting or denying FINRA’s findings.

The purported supervisory failures would have taken place from September ’11 to June ’12. The broker, whom Neuberg supervised, falsified documents to expedite transactions to accommodate certain customers. Neuberg is accused of not properly training the broker.

Ex-GL Capital Partners CEO Gets Nine Years in Prison

In other news, Daniel Thibeault, the former CEO of GL Capital Partners, is sentenced to nine years behind bars for misappropriating at least $15M. He must pay $15.3M in restitution for the criminal charges. He also is contending with civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Securities Headlines: SEC Announces $17M Whistleblower Lawsuit, Delta Employees File 401(K) Lawsuit Against Fidelity, Blackstone President Says Hedge Funds Could See 25% Asset Loss, and Deutsche Bank is Fined $6M By FINRA

Published on: June 29, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Issues Its Second Largest Whistleblower Award
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded the ex-employee of a company more than $17M for a whistleblower tip that helped move the regulator’s probe forward, ultimately resulting in a successful enforcement action against that company. This is the second largest award that the regulator has issued since it started its whistleblower program in 2011.

To date, the program has awarded over $85M to 32 whistleblowers. The largest SEC whistleblower award so far has been $30M and it was issued in 2014. In the last five months alone, five whistleblowers have been awarded over $26M.

Under the SEC whistleblower program, whistleblowers may be entitled to receive a monetary award if the information they’ve voluntarily given the regulator is original and helpful, resulting in an enforcement action, and the monetary sanction arrived at is greater than $1M. In such cases the whistleblower may be entitled to 10-30% of the funds collected. The payments come out of an investor protection fund paid for by monetary sanction payments issued to the SEC for securities law violations.

Delta 401(K) Participants File Lawsuit Against Fidelity
Fidelity Investment units are now defendants in a 401(K) lawsuit filed by participants in a Delta Air Lines Inc. retirement plan. The plaintiffs want class action status.

They claim that Financial Engines, which was retained to give investment advice to the Delta Family-Care Savings Plan, is paying Fidelity a substantial chunk of the fees it receives from the 401(k) plan members. This has purportedly inflated the cost of investment advice services that are essential to the plan and is a violation of Fidelity’s fiduciary duty. They also claim that Fidelity’s management of BrokerageLink, a self-directed brokerage account, acquires share classes with high expense ratios that pay the broker dealer significant revenue-sharing payments. The plaintiffs believe Fidelity is “effectively” utilizing the assets of the plan to its benefit.

Fidelity claims the allegations are meritless.

FINRA Accuses Broker of Encouraging Clients to Invest in High-Risk Exchange-Traded Funds Because He Anticipated Financial Turmoil

Published on: June 28, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a case against Richard William Lunn Martin, a former broker. According to the self-regulatory organization, from at least 3/11 through 7/15, and while he was a GF Investment services broker, Martin encouraged clients to invest in high-risk non-traditional exchange-traded funds so he could hedge against what he anticipated would be a pending financial crisis. Martin purportedly believed that the financial and monetary system was going to fail. FINRA said that he lost customers $8M as a result of the bad investment advice he gave them.

Because of his fears, said FINRA, Martin recommend that clients put their money in inverse and leveraged funds, which are typically not suitable for retail investors. This is especially true when the market is volatile and the investor intends to hold the funds for longer than one trading session. Examples of recommendations that he made:

· Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 2x Shares (DUST)

· Proshares UltraPro Short Russe112000 (SRTY)

· Proshares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ)

401K Lawsuits: MassMutual Settles with Employees for $31M and TransAmerica Settles for $3.8M

Published on: June 27, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has arrived at a nearly $31M settlement with plaintiffs of a class action securities case. They are accusing the retirement service provider of charging excessive fees in its retirement plans. The 401k lawsuit involved MassMutual’s $200M Agent Pension Plan and its $2.2B Thrift Plan. The settlement includes a $30.9M payment and non-monetary provisions that would benefit participants of the plan.

The case is Dennis Gordan et al v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. et al, and plaintiffs include ex-plan participants and current ones. They are accusing defendants of breaching their fiduciary duty under ERISA through the charging of excessive administrative fees and offering a costly and unnecessarily risky fixed-income choice, as well as investments that were expensive despite not performing well.

The non-monetary provisions of the settlement include the hiring an independent consultant to make sure that plan participants are not asked to pay excessive fees for record-keeping services or record-keeping fees based on asset percentages, a review of all investment options, and the consideration of a minimum of at least three finalists when making an investment selection.

The settlement has been submitted to a district court for preliminary approval. MassMutual has not admitted to liability or fault despite settling.

Bondholders Sue Puerto Rico As Debt Talks Falter

Published on: June 27, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A group of hedge funds in New York that invested in Puerto Rico general obligation bonds are suing the island’s government. The bond lawsuit came just days before the island is expected to default on a $2 billion debt payment due, including over $700 million in general obligation bonds on July 1, and on the same day that the island announced it was ending talks with bondholders about debt payments.

The negotiations has resulted in a number of failed proposals and counterproposals, but no resolutions. The U.S. Commonwealth continues to owe $70 billion in public debt, including $12.5 billion in general obligation debt.

The hedge funds’ complaint seeks to invalidate a law allowing Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla to put into effect a temporary debt moratorium. The bondholders contend that when they purchased the general obligation bonds, they had counted on the protection that was supposed to guarantee the bonds under the territory’s constitution.The hedge funds are arguing that they are entitled to be paid first—and in full—and on time. They claim that the the moratorium cannot be applied to the bonds that they hold. Also, the hedge funds are accusing the Puerto Rico government of improperly diverting tax revenue to the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. (COFINA) so more debt could be issued while bondholders were not paid.

Financial Firm Settlements: HSBC Holdings Settles Yen Libor and Euroyen Tibor Rigging Claims for $30M & BNY Mellon to Pay Investors $35M for FX violations

Published on: June 24, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBC) will pay $35M to resolve an antitrust lawsuit accusing the bank of Euroyen Tibor and Yen Libor rigging. The securities case, brought by Sonterra Capital Master Fund, Hayman Capital Management, California State Teachers’ Retirement System, lead plaintiff Jeffrey Laydon, and other institutional investors, accused HSBC and other banks of manipulating benchmark rates over several years.
According to the investor lawsuit, Laydon sustained losses in the thousands of dollars in 2007 when shorting the Euroyen Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (Euroyen Tibor).

As part of the settlement, HSBC will provide attorney proffers detailing facts that the bank uncovered during its own probes into Euroyen Tibor and Euroyen Libor manipulation, witness statements made by its employees, specific documents that it has given to the Federal Reserve Board of New York and regulators, and other information.

A judge has to approve the deal.

SEC Files Charges in $80M Texas Oil and Gas Scam

Published on: June 24, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Breitling Energy Corp. (BECC), Breitling Oil & Gas Corporation, Patriot Energy Inc., Crude Energy, LLC, and eight people over an $80M Texas oil and Gas scam run by a Dallas man. Chris Faulkner, who is Breitling Energy Corp.’s CEO, is accused of starting the scam as far back 2011 through Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation (BOG), which sold “turnkey” oil and gas working interests.

Faulkner is charged with issuing misleading and false offering documents, trying to manipulate BECC’s stock, and misappropriating clients’ funds, including at least $30M for his own expenses, such costly meals, international travel, personal escorts, and jewelry. The SEC said that the false offering documents included fake statements and omissions regarding Faulkner’s experience, the ways in which investor money would be used, and drilling cost estimates. The documents also included reports by Joseph Simo, a licensed geologist. Simo’s production projections purportedly had no basis and the reports did not mention that he had ties to BOG.

The SEC said that BECC, Patriot Energy, and Crude Energy also were involved in the scam. Faulkner is accused of setting up the latter two companies so he could scam investors through additional offerings that resembled those offered by BOG. BOG, Patriot, and Crude would go on to raise over $80M from investors.

Also facing SEC charges are ex-Crude and Patriot employee Beth Hadkins, ex-BECC CFO Rick Hoover, BECC COO Jeremy Wagers, BOG co-owners Dustin Michael Miller Rodriguez, and Parker Hallam, Simo, and ex-BECC employee Gilbert Steedley. Wagers and Hoover,

Massachusetts Fines Seven Broker-Dealers Over Proxy Voting Fraud Involving Realty Capital Securities

Published on: June 23, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin is ordering seven brokerage firms to pay $238K in fines for their involvement in the proxy fraud committed by Realty Capital Securities. The broker-dealers are:

· Voya Financial Advisors Inc. (VOYA)
· Invest Financial Corp.
· FMN Capital Corp.
· Platinum Wealth Partners Inc.
· Newbridge Securities Corp.
· TKG Financial
· Pariter Securities

Galvin claims that brokers at the firms worked with RCS to cast the bogus proxy votes involving American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust II and American Realty Capital Trust V—both nontraded real estate investment trusts—and Business Development Corp. of America, which is a nontraded business development company. The state’s securities division claimed that RCS employees pretended to be shareholders so they could cast proxy votes to the benefit of management. The votes were key in the merger between American Realty Corp., which is a Real Capital Securities affiliate, and Apollo Global Management. The deal was linked to a larger deal of $378M between AR Capital and Apollo.

Merrill Lynch to Pay $425M to the SEC and $5M to FINRA for Misusing Customer Funds and Misleading Investors About Structured Notes

Published on: June 23, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Merrill Lynch will pay $415M to resolve civil charges accusing the firm of misusing customer funds and not safeguarding customer securities from creditor claims. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm violated the regulator’s Customer Protection Rule by using customer funds inappropriately instead of depositing them in a reserve account.

Instead, said the SEC, Merrill Lynch took part in complex options trades that artificially lowered how much in customer funds needed to be in the reserve account. This liberated billions of dollars a week from ’09 to ’12. The firm used the funds for its own trades. If Merrill had failed with these trades there would have been a substantial shortfall in the reserve account.

Merrill Lynch, which is owned by Bank of America (BAC), has admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

The SEC said that the firm violated the Customer Protection Rule when it didn’t abide by the requirement that customer securities that had been fully paid for be kept in lien-free accounts and protected from third parties claims in the event that Merrill Lynch were to collapse. Such a failure would have exposed customers to great risk and there would have been uncertainty as to whether they’d be able to get their securities back.
Also, contends the Commission, from ’09 to ’15, Merrill held up to $58B of customer securities a day in a clearing account that was subject to a general lien to be handled by its clearing bank.