Investor Lawyers Blog

Two Ex-State Street Executives Face Criminal Charges Involving Institutional Investor Fraud

Published on: April 5, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Federal prosecutors are charging Ross McClellan and Edward Pennings with securities fraud and wire fraud. McLellan was formerly with State Street Corp.’s (STT) brokerage firm unit in the US and Pennings worked for the bank in London. According to the government, the two men secretly charged six clients excess commissions for billions of dollars of securities trades. The clients included government pension funds in Britain and Ireland and a sovereign-wealth fund in the Middle East.

The two former State Street executives allegedly charged clients the trading commissions in addition to the fees that the latter had already agreed to pay and even though they specifically were not supposed to charge them commissions. The men purportedly ran their scam from 2/10 through 9/11, allegedly making millions of dollars in the process.

Although State Street wasn’t officially named in the criminal indictment, The Wall Street Journal reports that the firm’s senior vice president, Carolyn Cichon, verified that two of the bank’s former employees were involved in the matter. It was in 2014 that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority fined State Street’s unit in that country $32.4M for charging clients $20.2M in excess commissions.

Four Face SEC Charges in Florida Elder Abuse Scam Involving Free Dinners

Published on: April 4, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging four men with fraud. The regulator claims that Joseph Andrew Paul, James S. Quay, John D. Ellis, Jr., and Donald H. Ellison sought to bilk investors, including seniors, by promising them lucrative returns for their money.

The SEC contends that Ellis and Paul lied about their investment advisory firm’s performance record, generated fraudulent marketing collateral that included performance figures from the website of another firm, and recruited Quay and Ellison to be part of the scheme. The latter two then purportedly used the fraudulent materials to deceive investors who answered a mass mailing that offered a free dinner at a restaurant in Florida. Quay, who previously was found liable for securities fraud and convicted of tax fraud, allegedly used the name “Stephen Jameson” as an alias to hide his real identity. The SEC said that Jameson was not a registered investment professional when the allegedly fraudulent behavior took place, nor was Ellison for most of that time.

“Free Lunch” Seminars
The Commission has warned more than once that when it comes to investment seminars there is no such thing as a “free lunch.” While you, as the attendee, may not have to pay for the food, these seminars are educational programs and investment workshops geared toward getting you to buy an investment product that a host or an affiliate is touting.

While there are plenty of legitimate investment seminars, there are those that have purposely been set up to bilk prospective attendees. At such gatherings there may be fake products sold, misrepresentations about risks and returns made, conflicts of interest related to the products for sale and the information provided, and advertising collateral that is misleading or inaccurate. Unfortunately, older investors continue to be a favorite target of financial scammers.

At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP, our elder financial fraud lawyers are here to work with investors to get their money back.

California Sues Morgan Stanley for Purportedly Selling Bad Investments

Published on: March 31, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The State of California is suing Morgan Stanley (MS) for allegedly selling bad residential mortgaged backed securities. According to lawmakers, the firm sold residential mortgage-backed securities as risky loans to subprime lenders while downplaying or hiding the risks and at times encouraging credit raters to bestow the securities with high ratings that were not warranted. Because of these RMBS sales, contends the state, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) sustained devastating losses.

California claims that the firm violated the state’s False Claims Act and securities laws. A significant part of the case challenges Morgan Stanley’s behavior when marketing the Cheyne SIV, which was a structured investment vehicle that failed nine years ago. State Attorney General Kamala Harris is seeking $700M from the firm, as well as over $600M in damages.

Meantime, Morgan Stanley has argued that the case is meritless. It contends that the RMBSs were sold and marketed to institutional investors who were sophisticated enough to understand the investments. They claim that the RBMBs performed in a manner that was in line with the sector to which it belonged.

It was just recently that Moody’s Corp. reached an agreement with CalPERS to pay the California pension fund $130M to resolve allegations that the credit rating agency may have acted negligently by giving high ratings to toxic investments. CalPERS contended that its purchase of the investments cost it hundreds of millions of dollars.

Brothers Accused of $2.7M Ponzi Scam Involving Elderly Investors

Published on: March 31, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against brothers Daniel Rivera and Matthew Rivera with fraud. The two men are accused of running a $2.7 million Ponzi scam that targeted unsophisticated older investors.

According to the SEC, from ’08 to ’14, Daniel told investors that they could make money from Robbins Lane, which was a real estate venture in Pennsylvania. On occasion, he even purportedly recommended to some of them that they sell their retirement assets to invest in the venture.

In truth, said the Commission, Robbins Lane, which the Rivera brothers founded, lacked an investment portfolio and the ability to provide the senior investors any income. Yet Daniel set up a Robbins Lane website and produced a brochure touting the opportunity as one that gave older investors “guaranteed” income every month.

However, rather than invest the fund Daniel used the money to cover his own expense and his daughter’s college tuition. He diverted some of the money toward a janitorial business that he ran with Matthew. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor money went to pay other investors.

Insider Trading: Ex-Goldman Employee to Pay $900K Fine, Former Harman VP Enters Guilty Plea, and Ex-AMO CEO Asks Judge To Stay Lawsuit

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

Former Goldman Employee Fined Over $900K For SEC Insider Trading Case
Former Goldman Sachs (GS) compliance worker Yeu Han will pay over $903,000 to settle allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of insider trading. Han was hired by the firm to develop surveillance software to help Goldman identify illegal conduct, including insider trading and market manipulation.

According to the regulator, Han was employed in the firm’s compliance division. He had access to the emails of other Goldman employees who worked on confidential acquisition and merger deals. The SEC contends that even though Han was aware that this information was privileged and nonpublic, and that he would have to get supervisory clearance and disclose his brokerage accounts to engage in any trading, in December 2014 he started trading in the securities of a number of companies before each one publicly announced acquisition and merger news. These companies included Zulily Inc., Yodlee Inc., KLA-Tencor Corp., and Rentrak Corp.

The Commission is accusing Han of making over $468K through his personal account and more than $434K through the account of a relative. Last October, Han left the United States and went to China, where he is a citizen. In November, the SEC filed the insider trading charges against him.

Ex-Harman International VP Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading
Dennis Hamilton, a former vice president of tax at Harman International Industries Inc. has pleaded guilty to insider trading. For the one count of securities fraud, the 45-year-old faces up to 20 years behind bars—although recommended federal guidelines could help him to procure a one-to-two-year prison term instead.

ISDAFix-Rigging Lawsuits Against Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and Others May Proceed, Says Judge

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

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has turned down the request by Barclays Plc (BARC), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Citigroup Inc. (C), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), HSBC Holdings Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), UBS AG (UBS), JPMorgan Chase & CO. (JPM), Wells Fargo & CO. (WFC), and Nomura Holdings Inc. to dismiss the antitrust lawsuits accusing them of working together to rig the ISDAfix. The benchmark rate is used to establish prices on commercial real estate mortgages, interest-rate swap transactions, and other securities. Another defendant is ICAP Plc, which brokered transactions that set the rate for ISDAfix.

Furman said that plaintiff Alaska Electrical Pension Fund and other investors have brought up “plausible allegations” that there may have been a conspiracy between the defendants that allowed them to collude with one another. The investors are seeking billions of dollars in losses they believe they sustained because ISDAFix was allegedly rigged. In this case, the judge let the breach-of-contract claims and antirust claims proceed to trial but dismissed the other claims.

Unregistered Investment Adviser Accused of $53M Ponzi Scam Involving Pre-IPO Companies

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

New Jersey adviser John Bivona is facing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing him of raising over $53M from investors in a Ponzi-like scam that involved the selling of investments in pre-IPO tech companies. However, contends the SEC, instead of investing the funds as intended, he used investor money to pay taxes, legal fees, a car loan, a vacation house mortgages, and cover his nephew’s credit card bills.

The regulator, in its complaint, said Bivona funneled millions of dollars into earlier funds that he and his company managed, while at least $5.7M went to family members, including nephew Frank Mazzola, who also is dealing with SEC charges for a previous investment scam.

The Commission alleges that Bivona raised the money through Saddle River Advisors, which has not registered with the regulator since 2013, and SRA Management. Because he purportedly took the money for his own spending, to pay family bills, and keep different funds running, his firms often never had enough money to buy the shares investors had been promised.

The SEC believes that Bivona was able to keep his Ponzi scam going because he kept transferring funds between over a dozen bank accounts associated with a number of entities. Meantime, investors never received financial statements they were promised.

In its press release announcing the charges, the SEC linked to one of its bulletins that identifies the possible warnings signs that the unregistered offering you are thinking of investing in may be a scam. The Commission noted that unregistered securities are

SEC Charges New York Man With $95M Institutional Investor Fraud

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

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Andrew W.W. Caspersen and shell entity Irving Place III SPV, LLC with defrauding two institutional investors, including a non-profit charitable affiliate of an investment limited partnership. Caspersen is a securities professional associated with a registered brokerage firm. He also is one of the sons of deceased financier Finn Caspersen. According to the SEC, Caspersen offered the two clients promissory notes that were issued by the shell entity, which he controlled. However, Irving Place III SPV, LLC lacked any business operations that were legitimate.

The regulator contends that the New York securities professional obtained $25M from an institutional client last November by falsely representing that about $900 million of Irving Place III SPV’s assets would be securing the investment. According to USA Today, Caspersen told the investor, which was a charitable foundation, that he wanted to invest in an $80M credit facility that he said his firm had established to facilitate investments in the secondary market for private equities.

The promissory note promised 15% yearly interest that was payable quarterly. The note was supposed to be totally redeemable within 90 days upon notice. After receiving the money, Caspersen allegedly took the money for his own use. He later used similar misleading and false statements to solicit another $20M from that investor and $50M from a NY private equity firm. This was after purportedly losing most of the $25M through high-risk options trading. Both times he was unsuccessful in obtaining the founds. In fact, the charitable foundation became suspicious and demanded that he return the $25M, which has yet to happen.

UBS Ordered to Pay Investors Over $47K in Puerto Rico Bond Fraud Case

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

UBS Group AG (UBS) must pay Obdulio Melendez Ramos, Carlos L. Merced, and Ramon Velez Garcia over $470K for losses they sustained from investing in Puerto Rico bonds/bond funds that lost value. The three men filed their case with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They contend their accounts were over-concentrated in risky Puerto Rico bonds/bond funds. Ramos, Garcia, and Merced had alleged negligent supervision and fraud.

Addressing the panel’s ruling, a spokesperson for UBS called the decision “disappointing” and said that he disagreed with the outcome. In an emailed statement, Gregg Rosenberg contended that that there were specific circumstances involved with this case and its outcome was not a indicative of how other arbitrators might rule in similar cases. However, according to a recent supplement for the firm’s fourth quarter earnings results, since August 2013 drops in Puerto Rico municipal bond prices, as well as in the prices of related proprietary funds UBS manages and distributes, have led to customer complaints, regulatory inquiries, and arbitrations filed against the firm.

Claimed damages against UBS are estimated to total $1.5B. The vast majority of those claims are still outstanding.

Many investors have accused UBS Puerto Rico of inappropriately persuading them to invest in the island’s municipal bonds even though these investments were not appropriate for them. UBS brokers even purportedly encouraged some investors to borrow so that they could become more heavily invested in the bonds. When Puerto Rico bond prices plunged, it was the investors, many of whom were retirees, that suffered.

Mortgage Securities News: Supreme Court Rejects Banks’ FDIC Case, Credit Suisse to Pay NCUA $29M in MBS Case Involving Credit Unions, & Former Fannie Mae CEO Must Contend With SEC Fraud Claims

Published on: March 26, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

US Supreme Court Turns Down Banks’ Bid that It Examine FDIC Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to review the 2015 ruling made by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that revived the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) securities case accusing Goldman Sachs (GS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Deutsche Bank (DB) of misrepresenting the quality of securities it sold to Guaranty Bank, which later failed. The FDIC took the Texas bank into receivership in 2009 and sued the banks in 2014.

A judge in Austin, Tx. dismissed the case, citing a state law requiring that lawsuits be brought within five years of a mortgage-backed security’s sale. The complaint had been filed at least 9 years after the MBSs were sold.

Last August, the Fifth Circuit cited a 1989 federal law and revived the case. The appeals court said that the FDIC is allowed an extended time period to file complaints for institutions that it insures and have gone into receivership. Circuit Judge Carolyn Dineen King wrote that it was this federal law that made it possible for the FDIC to concentrate on dealing with bank failures rather than worrying about possible statutes and their limitations.

RBS, Goldman, and Deutsche then filed their petitioned with the U.S. Supreme Court. The banks pointed to a past holding by the highest court that barred other courts from preempting state law unless the U.S. Congress has made such a preemption clear.

Credit Suisse Resolves MBS Case for $29M
Credit Suisse (CS) must pay $29M to settle the National Credit Union Administration’s claim that it sold bad mortgage-backed-securities to credit unions. NCUA’s lawsuit revolves around MBSs that UBS (UBS) underwrote and sold to Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union and the Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union for over $228M from ’06 to ’07. Both credit unions have since failed.