Illinois Investor Sues Open to the Public Investing

Illinois Investor Sues Open to the Public Investing After Losing Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars 

Unauthorized Third Party Accessed Her Brokerage Account And Made Trades Without Permission 

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Securities Law Firm  (investorlawyers.com) is representing an investor who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in life savings within a matter of hours after a third party gained unauthorized access to her account with Open to the Public Investing.

The brokerage firm, which launched Public.com, an online investing platform, was legally required to have a reasonable security system in place to detect and prevent fraudulent activities.

Our client is not a sophisticated investor. She set up a very basic portfolio at Public.com. In her FINRA lawsuit, she claims that in August 2025, a third party was able to access her account with the brokerage firm without her knowledge, consent, or authorization.

The access appears to have occurred outside of the Illinois city where she resides and was made from an unknown device. Both of these should have been red flags to the broker-dealer, indicating something was amiss.

This third party immediately sold the Claimant’s entire stock portfolio and started making trades that were out of character for her account. This included dozens of stocks from different companies, including many penny stocks and extremely thinly traded stocks. Her account was wiped out within a matter of hours.

Our client is accusing Open to the Public Investing of not preventing this unauthorized access by the third party. She is suing the broker-dealer for up to $500,000 in damages while alleging breach of contract, negligence, gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and more.

Are You An Investor Who Suffered Losses After Your Brokerage Account At Open To The Public Investing Was Accessed By An Unauthorized Third Party? 

The Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Securities Law Firm wants to talk to you. What happened with this investor may not be an isolated incident. Others using Public.com may have suffered a similar breach that also caused them to sustain portfolio losses.

This is a broker-dealer that specifically holds itself out to retail investors as an investing portal where “security comes first.” It promotes Public.com as an encrypted, secure platform with Two-Factor Authentication to ensure that “only you can log in.” For anyone to be able to access investors’ accounts there without authorization or permission is unacceptable.

Allow us to help you explore your legal options during a free, no-obligation case consultation.

Representing Investors Who Suffered Losses Because Of Unauthorized Breaches At An Online Brokerage Firm

Unfortunately, unauthorized access to brokerage accounts by third parties is happening more often. We are currently representing investors whose brokerage accounts at Webull Financial were hacked by an unknown third party in an alleged pump-and-dump scam.

Our securities law firm is also investigating allegations of a third-party breach at Tastytrade. Both Webull and Tastytrade use Apex Clearing Corporation to process their trading activities.

Why Hire Our Seasoned Securities Law Firm

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas has been fighting for investors for 35 years. We are an experienced and knowledgeable investment loss recovery law firm that has successfully secured financial recovery for thousands of Clients against broker-dealers and investment advisers who were liable.

Call Our Securities Law Firm  at (800) 259-9010 or fill out this online contact form.