Investor Lawyers Blog

SEC Sues Ex-Superior Bank Executives and Board Members

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

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against eleven ex-Superior Bank executives and board members. The regulator says that the bankers took part in numerous scams to hide just how bad the loan losses were at the bank after the financial crisis struck. Nine of the individuals have consented to settle the SEC’s charges.

The SEC is accusing the directors and officers of purposely misleading regulators and investors by using fake appraisals, straw borrowers, and insider deals to make the bank’s financial health seem more robust than what was actual. Bank officials are accused of improperly renewing, extending, and rolling over loans that were bad, in part to avoid having to report loan and lease losses.

Because of this, Superior Bank overstated its net income by 99% in public filings for 2009 and by 50% in 2010. The bank failed in 2011 and the Office of Thrift Supervision closed it last year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was appointed as its receiver.

State Street To Pay $12M To Resolve Pay-to-Play Scam Charges Involving Ohio Pension Funds

Published on: January 16, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The SEC said that State Street Bank and Trust Company will pay $12M to resolve civil charges accusing the firm of involvement in a pay-to-play scam. The regulator is accusing State Street of trying to gain contracts so it could do business with Ohio pension funds.

Vincent Debaggis, who helmed the public funds group of State Street Corp., is accused of entering into a deal with the deputy treasurer of Ohio. The arrangement allegedly included both illicit payments and political campaign contributions. In return for the money, State Street is accused of obtaining sub-custodian contracts that involved keeping the investment assets of certain Ohio pension funds safe and effecting the securities transaction settlements of the funds.

DeBaggis and State Street have agreed to the SEC’s order without denying or admitting to the regulator’s findings. The $12M that State Street will pay includes an $8M penalty and $4M in prejudgment interest and disgorgement. Meantime, DeBattis will pay over $174K in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest and a $100K penalty.

Securities Headlines: Ohio Financial Adviser Faces Criminal Charges, Petters Ponzi Scam Investors Still Waiting for Their Money, and FINRA Recommends Disciplinary Action Against Ex-Jefferies Bond Trader

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

Ohio Financial Adviser is Indicted in $15M Securities Fraud
Evolution Partners Wealth Management owner Larry Werbel has been indicted on criminal charges accusing him of involvement in a securities scam to bilk at least 100 investor of over $15M. Werbel recruited investors for shares of VgTel Inc. He and other brokers purportedly promised high dividends even though the shares were sold and purchased by companies belonging to the alleged scammers so that they could artificially inflate the share price.

According to prosecutors, over $9M of investor funds were pockets by the fraudsters. Werbel, who prosecutors say got investors to purchase $3M in VgTel shares, received over $300K in kickbacks.

He is charged with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to federal officers. Werbel claims he is innocent.

Meantime, the man accused of masterminding the securities scam, Edward Durante, was arrested in Germany and brought back to the US last month. He previously was convicted of securities fraud in 2011. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil case against Evolution Partners, Durante, and others.
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Goldman Sachs to Pay $5.1B in Mortgage-Backed Securities Investigation, $15M Over Purported Improper Securities Lending Practices

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

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has consented to pay approximately $5.1B to resolve a government investigation into the way it dealt with mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. The settlement was reached in principal with the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group of the U.S. Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. It must be finalized, still, with definitive documentation to be agreed upon by the parties involved.

The settlement resolves potential and current claims made by attorneys general in Illinois and New York, the US Justice Department, Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Seattle, and the National Credit Union Administration. Goldman is accused of packaging mortgage securities it knew would do badly and selling them off to investors. At issue are the bank’s underwriting, securitization, and sale of bonds from ’05 to ’07.

As part of the settlement, Goldman will pay a $2.39B civil penalty, $1.8B in consumer relief, and $875 million in cash payments. The consumer relief includes loan forgiveness for beleaguered borrowers and homeowners, affordable housing support, construction financing, debt restructuring support, improvement programs related to housing quality, and foreclosure prevention.

FINRA Files Securities Case Against Texas Firm Over Churning Allegations

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

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims that Caldwell International Securities Corp. engaged in the churning of customer accounts and that this purportedly resulted in $1 million in excess commissions for the firm. The self-regulatory organization says that the alleged violations began in 2011.

According to FINRA, the Texas-based company’s founder Greg Caldwell and supervisors Lennie Freiman and Paul Jacobs decided to ignore that four OSJs (offices of supervisory jurisdiction), three in New York and one in New Jersey, were churning customer accounts and making yearly commission revenues of at least 100% of the customers’ equity.

The regulator said that brokers at the OSJs contacted foreign investors to persuade them to take part in speculative stock and option trading. Even after 15 customers lost $1.1M and paid over $1M in commissions and fees, Caldwell and its supervisors purportedly still did not take any action.

Cost-to-equity ratios in customer accounts are believed to have varied from 18% to over 100%. The firm is also accused of not reporting that it had been the subject over three dozen customer complaints.
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Closing Arguments in UK Libor Trial Against Ex-RP Martin, Tullet Prebon, and Icap Brokers

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

Wrapping up its case, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office accused former ICAP (IAP) brokers Danny Wilkinson, Darrell Read, and Colin Goodman, ex-Tullet Prebon employee Noel Cryan, and ex-RP Martin brokers Terry Farr and James Gilmour of behaving like a “well-oiled machine” as they allegedly helped former Citi (C) and UBS (UBS) trader Tom Hayes manipulate the London interbank offered rate (Libor). The office’s lawyer said that the six men are guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

In addition to purportedly assisting Hayes to Libor’s yen variant by deceiving clients about the market’s conditions, the men are also accused of trying to convince traders at other banks to submit false Libor rates. The prosecution has said that for the ex-brokers alleged wrongdoing, they received hundreds of thousands of pounds in kickbacks. The SFO said that the former traders agreed to to try to manipulate Libor in return for “wash trades,” which are transactions intended to make it look as if a sale and purchase have happened even though there has been no change in ownership.

All of the men have pleaded not guilty, with five of them maintaining that they were never involved in the Libor rigging scam at all. Ex-RP Martin trader Terry Farr is the only one who has admitted that he tried to help Hayes. However, his defense team argued that Farr was not aware that his actions were wrong because he only had a basic understanding of the finance industry and didn’t understand derivatives. Also, Cryan said that he lied when he told Hayes he was helping him manipulate Libor. He claims that he never actually engaged in the wrongdoing alleged. Hayes, who recently succeeded in getting his 14-year prison sentence reduced to 11 years following an appeal, made over $300M for his former employers by rigging Libor.

SEC Probes High-Yield Funds in the Wake of Third Avenue’s Junk Bond Fund Collapse, Says Reuters

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

Reuters is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the possible liquidity risks involved in high-yield bond funds. The probe comes following the collapse of the Third Avenue’s Focused Credit Fund (TFCVX) in early December. That has been touted as the largest mutual fund failure since the financial crisis of 2007.

The fund failed because of its inability to meet so many investor redemption request following heavy losses in the junk bond market. When the fund couldn’t find more buyers, it ended up having to suspend the redemptions and liquidate.

Now, regulators want to look into the ways in which mutual funds deal with liquidity risks and how such disruptions can impact not just shareholders but also the wider market. Reuters said that last month the SEC notified mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that it wants information about how securities that are less liquid are priced and whether certain parties have questioned these prices.

In particular, reports the news agency, the Commission has specifically asked for daily internal illiquidity calculations from 8/31/15 to 12/15/15, the names of large fund shareholders, disclosures related to liquidity, redemption activity, portfolio composition quality for each fund, and the daily outflow and inflow of information. Fund mangers were reportedly given only 24 hours to provide a little over half of the information requested and another week to hand over the rest of the documents.

Ambac Assurance and Assured Guaranty Sue Puerto Rico For Defaulting on Bond Payment

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

Municipal bond insurance companies Ambac Assurance Corp. (Ambac) and Assured Guaranty Corp. (Assured) are suing Puerto Rico in the wake of its failure to make $37 million in bond payments that were due on January 1. The U.S territory defaulted on paying certain bonds in order to have the funds to repay $355 million owed to holders of Puerto Rico general obligation debts. In the process, it diverted $163 million from revenue streams that should have gone to the island’s government agencies.

Ambac and Assured insure approximately $1.1 billion and almost $1.5 billion, respectively, of the debt still owed to government agencies. The insurance companies contend that the island’s decision to use tax money, which should have gone toward payments on the bonds that they insure, to pay the other bond obligations due is unconstitutional. Assured also said that this legally interferes with the insurer’s contractual rights and violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Fourth Amendments, as well as Article I, Section 10.

Because of the default, the two insurance companies are collectively compelled to pay $10.7 million on insurance policies. Their lawsuit seeks to stop Puerto Rico from completing the payment clawbacks.

According to the two insurers, clawback authority is only applicable when no other funds are available to pay debt. They say that the island has yet to prove this to be true.
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Massachusetts Charges Citizens Securities in Elder Fraud Case

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

William Galvin, the securities regulator of the state of Massachusetts, has filed charges against Citizens Securities for purportedly selling an older investor funds that were too high risk for her investment tolerance level. He wants restitution for the investor, who lost approximately $7,000.

Citizens Securities operates out of Citizen Bank locations. According to the state, even though she had a low risk tolerance level, the woman was sold alternative and emerging markets funds and funds that purchase high-yield bonds. She also purchased a market-linked CD, investing $100K, without comprehending that it was riskier than a regular CD.

Her financial consultant, whom she met at Citizens Bank, purportedly did not give adequate disclosures of the branch’s brokerage activities or tell her the name of his employer. This caused the investor to think that he worked for the bank.

The advisor is accused of disregarding the elderly investors stated goals and not asking about her investment experience or education. The administrative complaint says that she told the financial consultant that she didn’t want to be exposed to the stock market. It also said that financial consultants at Citizens Bank are not supervised daily or in-person.
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SEC Cautions Mutual Funds That They May be Misdirecting “Sub-Accounting Fees” And Impacting Investor Returns

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

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management has put out a guidance on its website cautioning mutual fund directors to more closely scrutinize the money that is paid to brokers and certain other intermediaries. The warning comes following a sweep exam, which found that fees that should be going toward record-keeping and other administrative services are instead being directed toward encouraging fund sales. A number of mutual funds, brokerage firms, investment advisers, and transfer agents were examined prior to the issuance of this guidance.

SEC rules stipulate that sub-accounting fees cannot go toward finance distribution. These fees should only go toward record-keeping and shareholder services. However, there is an issue with mutual fund-maintained omnibus accounts in which all the fees can be placed together. In such instances, payments made to brokers for selling certain funds may get buried in these administrative fees.

Now, the Commission wants fund directors to watch out for fees that intermediaries selling the funds are getting for account services. It wants these directors to establish processes to assess whether a sub-accounting fee is being harnessed to increase sales. It also is calling on fund service providers and advisers to explain distribution and servicing specifics to fund directors.
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