Investor Lawyers Blog

Oppenheimer Must Pay $2.5 Million Fine, $1.25 Million in Restitution for Not Supervising Ex-Broker

Published on: March 29, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is fining Oppenheimer & Co (OPY) $2.5M for not supervising Mark Hotton. The ex-broker stole from customers and excessively traded in their accounts. Oppenheimer must also pay $1.25 million in restitution.

To date, the brokerage firm has paid over $6 million to settle customer securities arbitration claims involving Hotton. This latest restitution will go to another 22 customers who did not file claims.

According to the self-regulatory organization, Oppenheimer did not properly investigate Hotton before hiring him, despite the fact that FINRA’s own records linked him to several customer complaints and criminal charges. After discovering that Hotton’s business partners sued him for bilking them out of millions of dollars, still the firm did not heighten supervision over him.

Ex-Rabobank Trader Banned from Financial Services Industry in Britain for Libor Manipulation, Another Pleads Not Guilty in the US

Published on: March 29, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Conduct Authority has banned Paul Robson, an ex-Rabobank Groep (RABO) trader, from the financial services industry in the United Kingdom. Robson pleaded guilty to U.S. fraud charges and was convicted for his involvement in a conspiracy to rig the London interbank offered rate (Libor). This is the FCA’s first public action against an individual for Libor manipulation.

Robson was the main submitter of yen Libor at the bank. FCA’s acting enforcement and market oversight director Georgina Philippou said that there was no way Robson could argue that he didn’t know what he was doing. The criminal charges submitted by the Southern District of New York last year said that while at Rabobank Robson was responsible for its yen Libor submission from January 2006 through at least November 2008. He then went to another brokerage firm before going to work at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, also in the U.K. The FCA said that Robson kept manipulating Libor through at least the beginning of 2011.

He is accused of colluding with co-workers and employees of other firms of manipulating the rate to their benefit. In May, trials are set to start for individuals charged with Libor rigging.

Puerto Rico’s Debt Gets Downgraded to “B” by Fitch Ratings

Published on: March 28, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings (“Fitch”) has downgraded the general obligation and related debt of Puerto Rico to “B”, rating it even further into junk territory and three notches under investment grade, because of worries about the U.S. territory’s ability to go through with planned financing. As a result of the downgrade of the general obligation debt, the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority senior lien revenue bonds were also downgraded.

The ratings reduction is related to a new law in the Commonwealth. The law is supposed to help overhaul public debt by letting certain government agencies with a reported $19.4 billion in outstanding bonds restructure their debt. Fitch is worried that because of the way the restructuring is delineated in the law, this could result in debt payment suspensions while “precluding timely payments” of principal plus interest until proceedings are finalized.

Fitch also reduced the rating of Puerto Rico’s sales tax entity COFINA, pension funding bonds, and the Public Building Authority government facilities’ revenue bonds. The credit rating agency pointed to mixed economic signs, such as accelerated year-over-year declines in the labor force and yearly drops in the monthly economic activity index of the Government Development Bank, as the reason for the new downgrades. Recently, Standard & Poor’s also reduced the general obligation debt of Puerto Rico to junk bond status- a BB, which is right below investment grade.

Ex-F-Squared CEO Still Battling SEC, Firm Dealing With Fallout from Securities Fraud Charges

Published on: March 27, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

F-Squared Investments Inc. has laid off 40 workers-that’s one-fourth of its staff-as it continues to deal with the ongoing asset losses in the wake of the securities fraud charges filed against it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year. During a routine examination, the regulator discovered that the asset management company allegedly had deceived investors by claiming its performance history was based on a real trading record going as far back as 2001 when F-Squared had just back-tested its algorithm. F-Squared is the biggest marketer of index products using ETFs (exchange-traded funds).

The SEC accused the firm of falsely promoting its AlphaSector investment strategy and its supposed excellent track record as based on its investment performance for real clients instead of the backtesting. Due to a calculation error, the results were inflated by 350%.

F-Squared settled the SEC charges for $35 million and the firm’s new CEO, Laura P. Dagan, said that F-squared has been putting more effort into compliance and its main product line. However, in the last several months, investors have withdrawn billions of dollars from F-squared strategies while several brokerage firms refuse to let advisers put more funds into the strategies.

Ameriprise Financial Settles 401(k) Fiduciary Breach Case for $27.5M

Published on: March 26, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP) will pay $27.5 million to settle a fiduciary breach case filed by its retirement plan participants. The plaintiffs contend that the financial firm cost them millions of dollars in excessive fees. The agreement was reached just weeks before the 401k lawsuits were set to go to trial. Even though Ameriprise is settling, the firm is not denying or admitting to the alleged breaches.

The plan participants filed their case in 2011 against the firm and the committes tasked with supervising Ameriprise’s employee benefits administration and 401(k) investments. The plaintiffs said that the investments in the 401(k) plan included money from the firm’s RiverSource Investments subsidiary and that both companies were paid fee revenues from the plan dollars of employees.

Under the deal, Ameriprise will not have to modify its plan but it will perform a request-for-proposal bidding process for investment consulting services and recordkeeping services, as well as other modifications. Aside from direct expense reimbursements from the plan, the firm cannot get paid for the administrative services it provides to the plan. Ameriprise also must continue to pay a recordkeeper, offer participants the required plan fee disclosures, and consider using separately managed accounts and collective investment trusts.

First New York Securities to Pay $916K to FINRA for Illegal Short Selling

Published on: March 25, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has sanctioned First New York Securities LLC for short selling prior to participating in 14 public securities offerings. To settle, the firm, which is not denying or admitting to the charges, will pay a $400,000 fine, disgorgement of $516,000 plus interest, and is barred for six months taking part in secondary or follow-on offerings. It also has consented to an entry of the self-regulatory organization’s findings and will modify its supervisory system to make sure it is in compliance.

According to FINRA, from 9/10 through 4/13, First New York sold securities short within the five days going into the pricing of the public offerings in the securities. It would then buy securities in the offerings—purchasing over 670,000 shares after short selling 187,060 securities shares during those five days. The short sales artificially dropped share prices, which let First New York purchase the stocks at a lower cost. The firm bet against shares of companies that included Kinder Morgan Inc. and BlackRock Inc. (BLK).

Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934’s Rule 105 of Regulation M, brokers are not allowed to buy securities in secondary offerings when during the restricted period prior to the pricing of the secondary offering the buyer sold short the security that is the offering’s subject. Please contact our securities lawyers to request your free case consultation. SSEK Partners Group represents high net worth individual investors and institutional investors who wish to get their securities fraud losses back.

Ponzi Scams: Madoff Victims to Get $93M, Fraud Lawsuits Name Insurance Brokerage Head in $10M Scheme

Published on: March 24, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Investors who were bilked in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scam will be getting back another $93 million. Madoff Trustee Irving Picard said that Defender Limited and related entities have consented to give back that amount, which they received from investing with the Ponzi mastermind. As part of the agreement, the $93 million will be withheld from the over $422 million that Defender is waiting to get back for its own losses in the scam.

To date, Picard has gotten back over $10.6 million of investors’ $17.3 billion in principal. This is the latest deal reached between the trustee and a so-called feeder fund. These funds pooled investor money and then sent the cash Madoff’s way. Bogus returns were issued to the funds, which gave the money to their individual investors.

Picard contended that the parties behind the Defender fund were aware, or if not then they should have been, that Madoff’s company was a fraud. The $93 million is representative of all the money that Defender withdrew from its fund from its formation in 2007 until the end of 2008 when Madoff liquidation proceedings began. As part of the agreement, parties involved with Defender will cooperate with Picard to get back the $550 million. Picard has also reached deals with feeder funds Premo Fund, Herald Fund SPC, and Senator Fund SPC.

SEC Rejects Broker’s Efforts to Start RIA While Behind Bars

Published on: March 23, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has barred David Scott Cacchione from the securities industry once again. Cacchione was banned in 2009 for helping to mastermind a $100 million financial scam. This time, his bar is for attempting to start a registered investment adviser firm while in jail for the previous crime.

Cacchione, who was released from prison in June, had been sentenced to five years in jail and three years supervised release for pleading guilty to securities fraud. The charge involved pledging clients’ securities without their knowledge to obtain over $45 million in personal loans for a friend. Among those whose money he used was an elderly widow and a children’s charity.

According to the SFGate, in 2007 and 2008 Cacchione, while managing director of Merriman, Curhan, Ford & Co. in San Francisco, gave client brokerage statements to William Del Biaggio III, who doctored them to make it appears as if the securities belonged to him. He did this to secure or renew some $100 million in loans. He used the funds to pay off debt and purchase an ownership stake in the Nashville Predators hockey team.

Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch to Pay $2.5M to Massachusetts Over Compliance Rule Relapse

Published on: March 23, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a Bank of America unit (BAC), will pay the state of Massachusetts $2.5 million to resolve charges that it did not abide by its own compliance rules. According to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, the firm did not properly supervise employees in January 2013 over two presentations that were made to financial advisers in Boston.

The presentations, which allegedly were not properly vetted by compliance staff, were geared toward helping advisers grow their business and oversee the services that they offer clients. Part of the presentations provided training on how to double production via the transfer of customer assets from brokerage accounts that were commission-based to ones with fiduciary fee-based options. Disclaimers about client suitability or advisers’ fiduciary duties were not provided.

According to Merrill Lynch’s own procedures and policies, its compliance team must approve these types of presentations beforehand. A Bank of America spokesperson, however, maintains that no clients were harmed. The firm has since reemphasized to its employees the importance of making sure that internal presentations are properly approved first.

US Prosecutors May Revoke Currency Rigging Settlements

Published on: March 21, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Bloomberg.com, U.S. prosecutors are thinking about revoking settlements in currency manipulation settlements that were agreed upon years ago and going after banks for manipulating interest rates. The Department of Justice is looking at whether banks violated the earlier deals that resolved those investigations, which stipulated that they would not break the law. If the government finds that banks did in fact commit crimes after the earlier settlements were reached it would be able to revoke those deals.

It has been a common practice for the DOJ to offer deferred prosecution and non-prosecution settlements in probes involving a number of matters, including market manipulation and violations of sanctions. Banks admit responsibility while cooperating with the investigation.

To rescind such a deal would be unprecedented. Among the banks that have settled probes over London interbank offered rate, also known as Libor, are Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), Barclays Plc (BARC), and UBS Group AG (UBS).