Investor Lawyers Blog

Whistleblower Earns $57M Payout in Second Lawsuit Against Bank of America

Published on: December 17, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Edward O’Donnell, an ex-Countrywide Financial executive, will receive $57 million for a second whistleblower lawsuit accusing parent company Bank of America Corp. (BAC) of fraud. In this case, O’Donnell accused a Countrywide unit of bilking Freddie Mac (FMCC) and Fannie Mae (FNMA) through the sale of home loans. Bank of America consented to settle the case for $350 million as part of a wider $17 billion deal to settle mortgage fraud claims.

For filing his whistleblower lawsuit, O’Donnell’s share is 16% of the recovery plus another $1.6 million. His award comes from the part of the settlement that the bank reached with federal prosecutors and the states of Illinois, New York, California, Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky.

He has yet to collect money from the other case, in which a jury found Bank of America liable for shoddy mortgage sales. That lawsuit revolved around the “hustle,” which was a program that rewarded employees for producing loans even if their quality was poor.

FINRA Orders Merrill Lynch to Pay $2.4M in Fine, Restitution for Hundreds of Securities Transactions That Violated Fair Price Guidelines

Published on: December 16, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA is ordering Bank of America’s (BAC) Merrill Lynch to pay a $1.9M fine for violating fair price guidelines over seven hundred times during a two-year period. The financial firm also must pay restitution of over $540K to customers that were affected.

According to the self-regulatory organization, Merrill’s credit trading desk purchased MLC notes from retail customers at up to 61.5% under the market price. General Motors had issued the notes prior to its bankruptcy. MLC Notes stands for Motors Liquidation Company Senior Notes.

Out of 716 transactions, 510 of them involved notes bought at markdowns that were greater than 10%. The desk would then sell the notes to brokers at market cost.

Moody’s Reduces American Realty Capital Properties Credit Rating to Junk Status, REIT’s Founder Nicholas Schorsch Steps Down

Published on: December 16, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

American Realty Capital Properties’ (ARCP) credit rating was just downgraded to junk status by Moody’s Investors Service (MCO). The credit rater is now rating the real estate investment trust with a Ba1, which is just under investment grade. Moody’s has also given ARCP a negative outlook. The downgrade comes following this week’s management shakeup at the REIT and its disclosure several weeks ago of massive accounting irregularities that were covered up.

This week, American Reality Capital Properties’ chairman and founder Nicholas Schorsch stepped down, as did COO Lisa Beeson and chief executive David Kay. In October, ARCP’s chief accounting officer and CFO also resigned after an $23 million accounting mistake was announced.

The change in management comes weeks after the REIT disclosed that it misstated financial results in 2014’s first quarter and purposely concealed the error by misrepresenting second quarter results. After the REIT revealed the $23 million accounting error, a number of firms suspended trading in nontraded real estate investment trusts that were run and backed by companies under Schorsch. The firms included Fidelity, Charles Schwab (SCHW), Pershing, LPL Financial (LPLA), AIG Advisor Group, National Planning Holding, Securities America, and even Schorsch’s Cetera Financial Group broker-dealer network.

Reliance Financial Advisors, Owners Face SEC Fraud Charges Involving Hedge Fund

Published on: December 15, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The SEC is charging Reliance Financial Advisors and its co-owners Walter F. Grenda Jr. and Timothy S. Dembski with securities fraud. The agency says that the Buffalo, NY-based investment advisory firm and the two men misled clients when recommending that they get involved in a hedge fund managed by portfolio manager Scott M. Stephan.

Grenda and Dembski of Reliance Financial Advisors guided senior investors toward making highly speculative investments in the Prestige Wealth Management Fund, which Stephan managed, even though they allegedly knew he was inexperienced in this type of investing. The clients, who were either close to retirement, retired, or living on fixed incomes, collectively invested around $12 million.

Stephan was supposedly going to employ a trading strategy that involved a specific computer “algorithm,” which actually only day traded. Instead, he started making trades manually, his approach eventually playing a part in the hedge fund’s failure. The SEC has said that Stephan’s investing experience was greatly exaggerated in offering materials. (The majority of his career involved collecting car loans that were overdue.)

Atlas Energy’s Oil and Gas Private Placement May Not Be Such a Good Investment for Outside Investors

Published on: December 13, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Atlas Energy LP Is inviting investors to put in at least $25,000 in an oil and gas drilling partnership in Texas and other states in exchange for shared revenue from the output from the wells. Its subsidiary, Atlas Resources LLC, is seeking to raise up to $300 million by the end of the year, with the company saying it will put in up to $145 million of its own money. However, according to Reuters, a closer look at the company’s confidential offering memorandum reveals that outside investors may not end up reaping as much as they think.

The private placement venture is called Atlas Resources Series 34-2014 LP. Private placements are unregistered securities sold to a limited number of investors via brokerage firms. Brokers can only market them to accredited investors (investors that have $1 million in assets-primary residence not included-or $250,000/year income) or institutions. Because of inflation, the number of those that qualify to be able to invest in private placements has gone up and not every investor is a high-income one. There are even retirees who now qualify.

According to the Atlas memorandum, $45 million of the money raised will go to Anthem Securities, an affiliate, to pay commissions to brokerage firms. Up to $39 million will go toward purchasing drilling leases from a different affiliate. Some of the $53 million for transport and drilling equipment may also go to affiliated suppliers. $8 million is a markup for estimated equipment costs. Atlas will get $53 million for markups and fees once drilling starts. All this lowers Atlas’s exposure by at least 40%. Once revenue starts coming in, the company is entitled to 33% of this.

Morgan Stanley Fined $4M by the SEC for Market Access Rule Violation

Published on: December 12, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is ordering Morgan Stanley (MS) to pay $4 million for violating the market access rule. The rule mandates that brokerage firms implement adequate risk controls before giving customers market access. An SEC probe, however, found that Morgan Stanley, which gives institutional customers direct market access via an electronic trading desk, did not have the necessary controls in place to stop a rogue trader from putting in orders that went over pre-set trading thresholds.

David Miller, who was an institutional sales trader, then purportedly exploited access to the market. Without Morgan Stanley’s knowledge, he committed financial fraud that would later result in the closure of Rochdale Securities, which was the financial firm where he worked. Miller, who has since partially settled the SEC’s case, pleaded guilty to parallel criminal charges. He was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.

Miller misrepresented to Rochdale Securities that a customer had given the authorization to buy Apple stock. While the customer order was for the purchase of 1,625 Apple shares, Miller instead put in numerous orders, buying 1.625 million shares. He intended to share in the profit if the stock made money but if it didn’t he planned to say he made a mistake about the order’s size.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, & Other Firms Ordered by FINRA to Pay $43.5M Over Activities Related to Toys “R” Us IPO

Published on: December 11, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is fining 10 firms $43.5 million in total for letting their equity research analysts solicit investment business and offering favorable research coverage related to the the planned Toys “R” Us initial public offering. The firms were fined: $2.5 million for Needham & Co. LLC; $4 million for Wells Fargo Securities, LLC (WFC), Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (DB), Morgan Stanley & Co., LLC (MS), and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. respectively; and $5 million each for JP Morgan Securities LLC (JPM), Barclays Capital Inc. (BARC), Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS), Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (C), and Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC (CS). FINRA rules state that firms are not allowed to use research analysts or promise favorable research to garner investment banking business.

In 2010, Toys “R” Us and its private equity owners asked the ten firms to compete for involvement in an initial public offering. The self-regulatory organization said that all of the institutions used equity research analysts when soliciting for this role.

The company asked the analysts to create presentations to determine what their views were on certain issues and if they matched up with the perspectives of the firms’ investment bankers. The firms knew that how well their analysts did with this would impact whether or not they would be given the underwriting role in the IPO.

SEC Headlines: Regulator Probes Oppenheimer Executive, Prepares Insider Trading Case Against Policy Research Firm, & Wants to Suspend Standard & Poor’s From Rating CMBSs

Published on: December 10, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Investigating Ex-Oppenheimer Executive for Securities Law Violations

According to Bloomberg.com, Robert Okin, Oppenheimer & Co.’s (OPY) former retail brokerage head, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In October, the agency’s enforcement division notified Okin that, based on a preliminary determination, it intended to file charges against him for securities law violations, including failure to supervise.

Okin is no longer with Oppenheimer. He resigned earlier this month to pursue “other interests.” Okin denies violating the Securities Exchange Act.

Ex-Ameriprise Manager Who Helped with SAC Capital Insider Trading Case Settles Charges Against Her

Published on: December 9, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former Ameriprise Financial (AMP) Manager Reema D. Shah, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud earlier this year, will pay $390,103 to settle both the criminal and Securities and Exchange Commission cases against her. Shah, who was a tech stock picker for Ameriprise subsidiary RiverSource Investments, LLC, illegally recommended Yahoo Inc. stock in 2009 after she became privy to nonpublic data about a search engine partnership between the technology company and Microsoft Corp.

According to government officials, Shah traded information between ’04 and ’09 with research analysts, hedge fund managers, and consultants, including Robert W. Kwok, who was the source of the data about Yahoo and Microsoft. Shah previously gave information to Kwok about the company Autodesk and its acquisition of Moldflow Corporation. Kwok went on to buy 1,500 Moldflow shares, allegedly because of the tip, and made a $4,750 profit.

The regulator claims that because of the insider trading information that Kwok gave her, Shah compelled certain funds that she helped manage to buy about $700,000 Yahoo shares. These were later sold at a $388,807 profit.

Ex-California Insurer Charged with Running $11M Ponzi Scam

Published on: December 8, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Joseph Francis Bartholomew is charged with 30 felony counts related to his alleged operation of an $11 million Ponzi scheme. The 75-year-old former licensed insurance agent has been called Orange County, Ca.’s Bernard Madoff, after the financier who ran a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scam for decades. Bartholomew allegedly bilked over 27 investors.

According to the California State Department of Insurance, he used his insurance business, MBP Insurance Services, to get people to trust him. Those involved reportedly included a number of family trusts, a church, an ex-baseball player, and senior citizens.

The Orange County Register said that Bartholomew made false promises to investors telling them that they could earn fast returns of up to 40%. For example, he is accused of offering one investor an unsecured investment while making the claim that the customer would get $10,000 a month if he invested $500,000. Bartholomew allegedly gave fraudulent assurances that the investment on third party life insurance policies was a legitimate one. He also made other misrepresentations, including claiming that over the last decade there had been no problems getting payments to investors.