Investor Lawyers Blog

Bond Insurer Says Detroit Pension Debt Lawsuit is Fraudulent

Published on: August 30, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Financial Guaranty Insurance Company is challenging the city of Detroit, Michigan’s efforts to invalidated $1.45 billion in borrowings that were supposed to resolve unfunded pension liabilities. Instead, they have been named as one of the reasons that the city went into Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The bond insurer is asking a bankruptcy judge to turn down the adversary complaint brought by Detroit to nullify debt that is pension-related.

The city maintains that the debt was issued by its former administration’s mayor and violated state law. It contends that the debts, which were viewed as contract payments, were really concealed borrowings that improperly went beyond the municipal debt limits of the Home Rule City Act.

FGIC says that this stance is a switch for the city, which for years insisted that the obligations were valid. The bond insurer wants damages from Detroit and says the city deceived it so that FGIC agreed to guarantee the transactions.

Former LPL Financial Broker Must Pay Almost $2 Million For Bilking Clients, Including Elderly Investors

Published on: August 29, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Blake B. Richards, an ex-LPL Financial (LPLA) broker, must pay close to $2 million in penalties and disgorgement over allegations that he defrauded clients of close to $1.7 million. According to the case, submitted in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, Richards told at least seven clients to write checks to entities under his control. The clients thought that the money would be invested in variable annuities, fixed-income investments, or equities. Instead, contends the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the funds were used to pay for his personal spending.

According to the SEC, most of the investors’ money came from life insurance proceeds or retirement savings. Two of the investors involved were widowed and at least two others were elderly customers.

Per the regulator’s complaint, Richards won one investor’s trust by delivering pain meds to her husband during a snowstorm. The spouse was suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer at the time.

J.P. Morgan Targeted in Possible Cyber Attack

Published on: August 29, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and up to four other banks were the victims of a possible cyber attack. According to the media, the financial institution is working with law enforcement authorities to figure out what happened.

Reuters reports that sources say the firm began its own probe after malicious software was found in its network, which indicates there had likely been a cyber attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking to see whether Russian hackers may have been involved. A possible motive for them could be retaliation for sanctions against Russia because of its role in the Ukraine military conflict. It is not unusual for Russian organized crime to target big financial institutions. Also looking into the matter is the U.S. Secret Service.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the hackers appear to have gotten in through the personal computer of employee and penetrated the bank’s inner systems. Gigabytes of customer and employee data may have been targeted. Authorities are trying to determine whether any data that might have been stolen has been used to move funds.

SEC Subjects Credit Rating Agencies, Asset-Backed Securities Issuers to Tighter Rules

Published on: August 28, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The SEC has approved rules granting the agency more control over credit rating agencies and obligates asset-backed securities issuers to reveal additional information about underlying loans. S.E.C. Chairwoman Mary Jo White says that the reforms will give investors crucial protections while making the securities market stronger.

The rules target the activities, products, and practices that were key factors in the 2008 financial crisis. They would apply to more than $600 billion of the asset-backed securities market, over which the SEC presides. The rules, however, won’t apply to bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC). Both entities are exempt from SEC rules.)Also, the new disclosure requirements won’t apply to private placements that are only sold to sophisticated investors.

Leading up to the economic crisis, Wall Street had packaged mortgages into investments that were given high ratings even though they didn’t necessary contain the highest quality subprime loans. Investors sustained huge losses when the securities plunged in value.

MF Global Wants to Pay $925M to Creditors

Published on: August 28, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Now that it has repaid the majority of its customers, MF Global Inc. wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to let it pay $295 million to its creditors. Most of the funds would go toward unsecured creditors, who would get a first distribution of approximately 20%. Holders of priority claims, as well as administrative and secured claims that were resolved, would get all of the money owed to them.

Giddens is also seeking to set up a reserve fund of over $400 for unresolved claims while placing a cap on how much each claim would get. MF Global has paid back the majority of its customers. Most of them got everything owed to them.

The brokerage firm and parent company MF Global Holdings Ltd. went into crisis when investors left after finding out that Jon S. Corzine, the CEO at the time and formerly a Goldman Sachs (GS) chairman and ex-governor of New Jersey, made big bets on European sovereign debt. Their departure created an approximately $1.6 billion shortfall in the accounts of customers that should have been kept separate from the firm’s money pool. The shortfall has since been recovered.

Citigroup Global Markets Fined $1.85M By FINRA, Must Pay $638K Restitution Over Non-Convertible Preferred Securities Transaction Valuations

Published on: August 27, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (C) will pay a fine of $1.85 million for not providing best execution in about 22,000 customer transactions of non-convertible preferred securities, as well as for supervisory deficiencies that went on for over three years. Affected customers are to get over $638,000 plus interest.

A firm and its registered persons have to exercise reasonable diligence to make sure that the sale/buying price the customer pays is the most favorable one under market conditions at that time. FINRA says that instead a Citigroup trading desk used a pricing methodology for the securities that failed to properly factor in the securities’ National Best Bid and Offer. Because of this, contends the self-regulatory organization, over 14,800 customer transactions were priced inferior to the NBBO. The SRO also claims that because Citigroup’s BondsDirect system for order execution used a faulty pricing logic, over 7,200 customers transactions were priced at less than NBBO.

FINRA says that Citigroup’s written supervisory procedures and supervisory system related to best execution in these securities were lacking. It claims that the firm did not review customer transactions for the securities at issue, which were either executed manually by the trading desk or on BondsDirect. Such an assessment could have ensured compliance with Citigroup’s best execution duties. (FINRA noted that it had sent the firm inquiry letters about the reviews.)

Goldman to Buy Back $3.15B in RMBS to Resolve FHFA Claims

Published on: August 26, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will pay $3.15 billion to buy back residential mortgage-backed securities related to bonds that were sold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The repurchase represents an approximately $1. 2billion premium and makes the mortgage companies whole on the securities. The RMBS case was brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

It was in 2011 that FHFA sued 18 firms to get back taxpayer money from when the U.S. took control of Freddie and Fannie after the economy tanked in 2008. Goldman is the fifteenth bank to settle.

The firm will pay Fannie May $1 billion and $2.15 billion to Freddie Mac for the securities. The two had purchased $11.1 billion from Goldman Sachs. A few of the other banks that have settled with the FHFA include Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Bank of America Corp. (BAC). The agency’s remaining RMBS fraud cases still pending are those against RBS Securities Inc. (RBS), HSBC North America Holdings Inc., (HSBC), and Nomura Holding America Inc. (NMR).

FINRA Claims Wedbush Securities Engaged in Supervisory and Anti-Money Laundering Violations

Published on: August 26, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a disciplinary complaint against Wedbush Securities Inc. that accuses the firm of violations related to anti-money laundering and systemic supervision. The self-regulatory organization says that from January 2008 through August 2013, Wedbush did not put enough of its resources towards supervisory systems, risk-management controls, and procedures. At the time, the firm was one of the largest market access providers, making millions of dollars from the business.

Because of purported violations, contends FINRA, market-access customers, including non-registered participants, were able to permeate U.S. exchanges and make thousands of trades that could have been manipulative and may have even involved spoofing and manipulative layering. The agency says that even though it was Wedbush’s duty to look out for suspect and possibility manipulative trades, the firm depended mostly on its market access customers to self-report such trading, as well as self-monitor.

FINRA contends that even though Wedbush received notice about the risks involved in its market access business, the firm ‘s supervisory procedures and risk management controls were not reasonably designed to deal with these factors. Wedbush even established incentives for compensation to be based on the value of market customer access trading. FINRA says that Wedbush should have set up, kept up, and enforced satisfactory AML policies and procedures, and it purportedly failed to report suspect transactions.

Bank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion to Settle DOJ Mortgage Probe

Published on: August 23, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Bank of America (BAC) and the U.S. Department of Justice have arrived at a $16.65 billion mortgage settlement. Under the agreement, the lender will pay $9.65 billion to the DOJ, the SEC, other government agencies, and six states. The remaining $7 billion will be paid in the form of aid to struggling consumers. This is the largest settlement between the U.S. and just one company. It resolves claims not just against Bank of America, but also against its current and past subsidiaries, including Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial Corporation.

The numerous probes now resolved involve the packaging, sale, marketing, structuring, and issuance of collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as mortgage loan origination and underwriting practices. As part of the settlement, the bank issued a statement of facts acknowledging that it did not disclose key information to investors about the quality of billions of dollars of RMBS that it sold to them. When the securities failed, investors, including financial institutions that were federally insured, lost billions of dollars. Bank of America acknowledges that it originated mortgage loans that were high-risk and made misrepresentations about the loans to the Federal Housing Administration, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae.

Merrill Lynch and Countrywide made a lot of the loans at issue before Bank of America purchased both entities in 2008. However, the government also had a problem with Bank of America’s own mortgage securities, as well as the latter’s attempts to circumvent internal underwriting standards by revising the financial data of applicants.

Securities Regulations News: SEC Looks to Delay Principal Trading Rules, FINRA Adds More Time to REIT Price Changes and 2nd Circuit Says Dodd-Frank’s Whistleblower Protections Don’t Apply Overseas

Published on: August 22, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Wants To Extend Temporary Rule Letting Dually-Registered Advisers Get Principal Trading Consent

For the third time in four years, The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to extend a temporary rule that makes it easier for investment advisers that are also registered as brokers to sell from the proprietary accounts of their firms. The regulator issued for comment its proposal that would move the interim’s rule expiration date to the end of 2016 instead of the end of 2014.

Under the temporary rule, dually registered advisers can either get verbal consent for principal trades on a transaction basis or give written prospective disclosure and authorization, in addition to yearly reports to the clients. With principal trades, a brokerage firm uses its own securities in the transaction.