Investor Lawyers Blog

Ponzi Scams: FINRA Bars Ex-Raymond James Broker Over $3M Ponzi Scam, Expels Success Trade Securities, Inc. for Bilking NFL and NBA Players

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

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is ordering Success Trade Securities Inc. and its President and CEO Fuad Ahmed to pay 59 investors, mostly current and ex-NBA and NFL players, about $13.7 million in restitution for losses they sustained in a Ponzi scam. Success Trade is now expelled from FINRA membership and Ahmed is also barred.

According to a FINRA hearing panel, between 2/09 through 3/13, the firm and Ahmed sold $19.4 million in bogus promissory notes to investors while omitting or misrepresenting material facts. These facts would have revealed that parent company Success Trade Inc. was in financial trouble.

Ahmed and the firm are also accused of misrepresenting that the funds would go toward costs for marketing and growing the businesses of the parent company. The SRO says that the funds instead went toward went toward unsecured loans to Ahmed for his personal spending and to pay interest payments to note holders.

NY Sues Barclays Over Alleged High Speed Trading Favors in Dark Pool

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

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Barclays (BARC) Plc. accusing the British bank of lying about giving preference to high-frequency traders. The state contends that Barclays took part in fraudulent activity related to a dark pool. The British-based bank has 20 days to respond to the securities fraud charges.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority data says that for the first week of June 2014, LX was the number two biggest alternative trading system in the United States. According to the high frequency trading case, LX, which is Barclays’ dark pool, favors computer-driven firms that can weave their way through the market at super fast speeds yet downplays how much these high-frequency traders use the venue.

Schneiderman says that the bank falsely depicted the way it routes the orders of clients and claimed to protect them from high-speed firms, when really the dark pool was run to the advantage of these traders. He claims that Barclays even specifically sought to bring in high-speed traders to LX, giving them preferential treatment over others by providing them with details about the way the dark pool is run.

SEC Stops Fraudulent Bond Offering by Chicago Suburb

Published on: June 25, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The SEC has gotten an emergency court order against the city of Harvey. The order puts an end to a bond offering that the Chicago, Illinois suburb was promoting. Also named in the order is Joseph T. Letke, the city’s controller.

The regulator contends that Harvey and Letke allegedly took part in a securities scam to use proceeds from the bonds for undisclosed, improper uses. The bond offerings were supposed to pay for a new Holiday Inn. Instead, officials purportedly took at least $1.7M of the proceeds to cover operational costs for the city. With the temporary order, Harvey is not allowed to sell or offer any bonds through the middle of July.

Per the SEC complaint, Harvey’s bond offerings from ’08-’11 were limited obligations bonds. The bond offerings had to be used for their intended purpose. Also the money that was raised needed to go toward the construction of the hotel. This is because funds that were supposed to pay back the bonds came from tax revenues that would be impacted by the progress and funding of the project. News reports reveal that the proposed Holiday Inn hotel and conference center have yet to be finished, with the hotel’s facade appearing gutted in certain places.

FINRA Arbitration Panel Orders Stifel Nicolaus to Pay $2.7M to Ex-Head Trader

Published on: June 24, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Financial Industry Arbitration Panel says that Stifel Financial Corp. (SF), the brokerage unit of Stifel Nicolaus, must pay $2.7 million to, Sean Horrigan. Stifel’s ex-head trader claims that the brokerage firm defamed him and withheld his bonus without just cause. Now, the panel is holding the broker-dealer liable.

Horrigan was fired from Stifel in 2012. According to his lawyer, his termination happened several weeks after he overheard a phone call in which a manager insulted his wife to a salesperson. Horrigan’s wife was also employed at Stifel at the time. After the incident, he reacted emotionally. It was after trading hours. The firm then demoted him before letting him go just weeks prior to giving him his bonus for 2011.

Stifel contended that Horrigan was not entitled to get that money because on the day that the bonuses were issued he no longer worked for the firm. His attorney, however, says that unless an industry professional signs a contract mandating that an employee has to be employed on bonus payout day, he/she is still entitled to that money.

SEC Chairman Mary Jo White Wants Reforms Made to Bond Market

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

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White wants significant reforms made to the bond market. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, White spoke about how trading in these fixed income markets are “highly decentralized.”

She expressed concern that technology was being used in these markets to make this decentralized approach to trading more beneficial for market intermediaries.

According to Reuters, White’s speech is a sign that the SEC is at last making an effort to implement recommendations it made in 2012 about the $3.7 million municipal securities market. The regulator is launching an initiative that would mandate that alternative trading systems and other electronic dealer networks make available to the public their best prices for municipal bonds and corporate bonds. This should give smaller retail investors, and not just certain select parties, pre-trading price data.

Pennsylvania Private Equity Firm Settles SEC Charges Over “Pay to Play” Violations Related to Political Campaign Contributions

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

TL Ventures Inc. has agreed to pay almost $300,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges. The regulator contends that the Pennsylvania-based private equity firm violated “pay-to-play” rules for advisory fees it continued to get from state pension funds and the city of Philadelphia even after an associate made campaign contributions to the mayoral candidate and the state’s governor.

This is the SEC’s first case under the investment advisers’ pay-to-play rules, which went into effect in 2010. Under the rules, investment adviser are not allowed to provide compensatory services via pooled investment vehicles or to a government client for two years after a firm or one of its associates makes campaign contributions to political candidates or anyone able to impact the retention of advisers to oversee government client assets.

Philadelphia’s mayor gets to appoint three members of the Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement. Pennsylvania’s governor gets to choose six of the state’s retirement system board members.

UBS AG Under Criminal Investigation Over Puerto Rico Bond Fund Sales

Published on: June 21, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Authorities in the United States are reportedly investigating UBS AG (UBSN) for its actions in Puerto Rico. The criminal fraud investigation comes in the wake of allegations that an ex-UBS broker in Puerto Rico told clients to improperly borrow money to purchase local mutual funds that later sank.

The investigation is centered around non-purpose loans that came from UBS Bank USA of Utah. The former UBS broker, Jose Ramirez, organized the loans for clients. The bank has since let him go.

Under internal guidelines, such loans are not allowed to be used for the purchase of securities since those very securities will be the collateral for the loans. Now, however, investors are saying that Ramirez was utilizing these loans to purchase more shares in the bond funds for them. Some are even saying that he gave them paperwork that made it appear as if customers were borrowing from the UBS bank in Puerto Rico and not the one in Utah. More than 100 investors may have been affected.

Bank of America Must Face SEC and Department of Justice RMBS Fraud Lawsuits, Seeks Meeting with US Attorney General

Published on: June 21, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In North Carolina, U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. said that Bank of America Corp. (BAC) would have to face government two residential mortgage-backed securities lawsuits. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice contend that the bank misled investors about the quality of loans tied to $850 million in RMBS.

Bank of America wanted the cases dismissed. It argued that the investors, both financial institutions, never sued the bank.

Judge Cogburn, however, found that the SEC’s lawsuit properly laid out that the bank lied about the mortgages’ projected health in its RMBS fraud case. With the DOJ’s case, he gave the department 30 days to revise its securities lawsuit. He found that the Justice Department did not properly state its argument, which was that bank documents included false statements while leaving out key facts.

Boston Investment Firm Accused of $5 Million Real Estate Investment Fraud Targeting Senior Investors

Published on: June 19, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The state of Massachusetts has filed a complaint against Cabot Investment Properties and its principals Timothy J. Kroll and Carlton P. Cabot. Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin is charging the firm with defrauding mostly elderly investors through fraudulent real estate investment sales.

The administrative complaints contends that Massachusetts residents wanting retirement income invested over $5 million in eight tenancy-in-common investments and misappropriated more than $9 million of the investment proceeds. Cabot Investment Properties had bought 18 business centers, malls, and other real estate properties in the US and structured them as securities.

Galvin claims that the respondents committed fraud when offering and selling the securities and made omissions and misrepresentations about their backgrounds and the consequences involved in securitizing the underlying TIC mortgages into commercial mortgage-backed securities. He contends that they misled investors by providing disclosures that downplayed how much liability was involved.

DOJ Investigates Foreign-Exchange Industry Over Sales Markups

Published on: June 19, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Bloomberg News, the U.S. Department of Justice is expanding its probe of the foreign-exchange industry by talking to the salespersons at the biggest banks in the world. They want to know about current sales practices, including how much customers are charged to exchange currency.

Over a dozen ex- and current traders and salespersons that were interviewed said that it is common to charge a hard markup, which factors in a slight margin for the services of a salesperson. Clients who don’t make currency deals too often or just in small quantities often don’t pay much attention to the rate they receive. Now, the DOJ wants to know if banks are committing fraud when they don’t properly disclose this practice to customers.

The Justice Department is just one of over a dozen authorities in the world that are probing the currency Now, banks are also conducting their own investigations in an attempt to negotiate for leniency just in case any disciplinary actions result.