Investor Lawyers Blog

Nontraded REIT Inland American Reduces Its NAV After Asset Sale

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

Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. (IARE) has lowered its estimated share value by 42.4%, because the company sold or spun off different assets over the last year. Among these were its hotel portfolios, now a listed real estate investment trust known as Xenia Hotels & Resorts Incorporated.

Inland American submitted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that $4 was its most current estimated share value. Prior to that, concluding 2013, the nontraded REIT said that its most recent valuation was at $6.94/per share value. Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. said it was reducing its yearly distribution from 50 cents to 13 cents.

Inland American president and chief executive Thomas P. McGuinness noted that Xenia constituted a significant chunk of its assets, with each stockholder getting one share of Xenia common stock for every eight Inland American common stock shares held at end of business on January 20. That was the spin-off date. Because of this, stockholders of Inland American now own common stock shares in both Xenia and Inland.

Morgan Stanley, DOJ Arrive at $2.6B Mortgage Bond Settlement

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

Morgan Stanley (MS) has reached an agreement in principal with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve claims related to its sale of mortgage bonds. The government probe looked into allegations that the financial firm misrepresented the quality of home loans that were packaged into bonds.

The broker-dealer, however, still needs to negotiate with the DOJ about other terms, including what would be included in a signed statement of facts. The settlement doesn’t resolve probes by state litigators.

Morgan Stanley’s financial agreement is much smaller than what other firms have paid when settling with the Justice Department. Citigroup Inc. (C) paid $7 billion, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) paid $13 billion, and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) paid $16.65 billion.

401K Fees in the Spotlight, With $62M Lockheed Settlement & Edison Class Action Case Before the Supreme Court

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

Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to pay $62 million to settle a lawsuit accusing its employee 401(k) retirement plan of charging excessive fees to participants. As part of the settlement, the defense company will take part in monthly assessments of its plan, offer participants low-cost funds, and get bids from at least three outside companies that know how to deal with administrative matters involving big company retirement plans.

There are 100,000 participants and $27 billion of assets in Lockheed’s retirement plan. The civil case accused the company of not acting wisely when managing the retirement savings of employees, charging high fund fees, keeping a significant quantity of participants’ savings in low-yield funds, and paying record-keeping fees that were excessive.

Lockheed denied the allegations. Even though it is settling, the company is not admitting wrongdoing.

Gray Financial Group Sues the SEC for Using Administrative Law Judges

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

Gray Financial Group Inc. is suing the Securities Exchange Commission over the agency’s use of its own administrative law judges instead of federal ones when trying enforcement cases. The lawsuit contends that the regulator’s administrative proceedings are a violation of the U.S. Constitution because the SEC judges are distanced from presidential supervision by at least two layers of tenure protection. The investment firm wants to block the Commission’s administrative action against it.

The regulator is probing whether the firm violated Georgia law when it invested in alternative investment for public pension funds in 2012. The plaintiff’s complaint said that the SEC sent out a Wells notice in 2014 noting that it found that Gray Financial did violate specific federal securities laws. It also said that even though there was no proof of related investment losses, the agency had started a confidential probe into the company.

The investment firm said that even though no formal charges were ever made, the nature of the probe was made public, which, it claims, compelled certain clients to terminate their business relationships with Gray Financial. This led to a decline in firm revenue.

SEC Cases: Brothers-In-Law Charged in Louisiana Insider Trading Scam, NY-Based Broker-Dealer Accused of CDO Liquidation-Related Fraud, & Colorado Ponzi Scam is Halted

Published on: February 20, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging former VP of The Shaw Group’s construction operations Scott Zeringue and his brother-in-law Jesse Roberts III with insider trading. Zeringue has already agreed to settle the regulator’s charges by consenting to pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus a penalty.

The SEC says that the insider trading took place in 2012 when Zeringue, while working at The Shaw Group, became privy to confidential data about the company’s upcoming acquisition by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company. Prior to the announcement of the deal, he bought 125 shares of Shaw stock and asked Roberts to buy for him, too. Roberts went on to tip others and they collectively made close to $1 million in illicit profits.

Meantime, parallel criminal charges have been filed against Roberts. Zeringue has already pleaded guilty to the criminal charges against him.

SEC Examines Whether Banks Are Complying With Capital Rules

Published on: February 20, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at efforts by banks to comply with capital rules. The regulator is searching for improper activities involving the way these financial institutions value complicated assets, as well as transactions used to transfer risks to other entities.

Following the financial crisis, when governments were compelled to rescue banks, regulators have increased how much capital lenders must hold in relation to assets. It has been the job of publicly traded banks to conform to new regulations. However, these new pressures may be compelling some to engage in certain behaviors, such as inaccurate valuations of the holdings of traders to improve profits.

Since the 2008 economic crisis, banks have upped capital requirements by keeping earnings and putting out shares. They’ve also reduced assets according to the rules that weight assets by risks. According to Bloomberg data, the five biggest Wall Street banks have gotten rid of over $200 billion—nearly 25% of risk-weighted assets linked to trading books in the eighteen months through September 2014. Banks have also modified models, lowered trading positions, and incorporated new rules.

U.S. Bank National Association Must Pay $18M to Peregrine Customers, Says Court

Published on: February 18, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A district court issued a Consent Order placing a permanent injunction against the U.S. Bank National Association and mandating that the bank return $18 million to customers of Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. customers.

US Bank has offices in Iowa where Peregrine, a non-bank, nonclearing FCM (Futures Commission Merchant), and its owner Russell Wasendorf were based. Peregrine was also The bank was the depository for the non-bank and it held an account for customer-segregated funds that Wasendorf accessed when bilking over 24,000 clients. Some $215M was misappropriated.

In July 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission put out a civil action against Peregrine and Wasendorf. The latter has pled guilty to criminal charges and received a 50-year sentence. He also has to pay over $215M in restitution.

US Probing Whether Morgan Stanley Data Breach Was Linked to Fired Financial Adviser

Published on: February 18, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A U.S investigation into the way Morgan Stanley (MS) information became available for sale online is looking at whether hackers targeted financial adviser Galen Marsh after he took information from the bank. Marsh was fired for taking data on up to 350,000 wealth management clients. His lawyer, however, maintains that Marsh did not try to use, sell, or publish the information for personal gain.

Now, federal investigators want to know whether there was a breach to Marsh’s computer after he took the information from Morgan Stanley, especially as there is no evidence that the firm’s own computers were hacked.

It was in December that the broker-dealer discovered that information about some 900 of its customers were published on Pastebin, which is a website. Potential buyers were asked if they would pay for more information and use a virtual currency. Morgan Stanley had the information removed from public view immediately and notified the authorities.

DOJ Investigating UBS Over Losses Related To Firm’s V10 Enhanced FX Carry Strategy

Published on: February 17, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

UBS Group AG (UBS) is under scrutiny over losses related to its V10 Enhanced FX Carry Strategy. The complex financial product was sold to fund managers, businesses, and individual investors and touted as a high-yielding foreign-exchange investment that employed computer algorithms to reduce risks during volatile times.

Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg, in 2010 during the start of the debt crisis, the index to which the notes were tied lost 26% over two years. Now, sources tell Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is looking at whether traders shortchanged investors by charging them too much for executing the currency trades for the strategy.

The V10 Enhanced FX Carry Strategy created sales commissions while offering an opportunity to profit from these sales and purchases of underlying currencies. Investors bought notes tied to the V10 index, which is calculated by ranking currencies from the Group of 10 nations daily according to one-month interest rates. UBS would then bet on the three highest-yielding currencies advancing and the three lowest declining. During a rise in volatility over a predetermined level, positions would be switched. Now, investigators with the DOJ are looking at instant messages, talking to traders, and examining documents issued to customers to figure out whether UBS represented how much profit it was taking on the trades.

EU Fines ICAP $17M for Helping Traders Manipulate Yen Libor

Published on: February 17, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The European Commission says that ICAP Plc has been ordered to pay a $17.2 million fine for helping traders manipulate benchmark interest rates linked to the Japanese yen. The word’s largest broker of transactions between banks is accused of spreading misleading data to lenders that set the yen Libor’s interbank lending rate, as well as helping traders communicate so they could collude with one another.

According to the Commission, the information was disguised as “predictions or expectations” but was actually geared toward influencing panel banks that were not involved in the infringements to turn in rates aligned with intended manipulations. The EU said ICAP facilitated six yen Libor cartels between ’07-’10 and attempted to get lenders to send rates that were similar to the panel. The broker also allegedly used other contacts to facilitate communication between an RBS trader and one from Citigroup (C). ICAP said it would appeal the fine and claims that the EU has shown no evidence that the broker engaged in violations of laws related to competition.

Authorities are looking into how bankers and derivatives traders worked together to make sure benchmarks were to their benefit, which could have affected over $300 trillion of financial products, loans, and contracts tied to the rate. While RP Martin Holdings Ltd., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Deutsche Bank (DB), UBS AG (UBS), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), and Citigroup already paid penalties to settle the EU’s case against them, ICAP refused. It has, however, paid $88 million of fines to United Kingdom and United States regulators to settle charges related to its contacts with traders at UBS.