F-Squared

Judge Says Ex-F-Squared CEO Must Pay More Than $13M Related to AlphaSector Strategy and ETF Fraud

Published on: March 22, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Howard Present, the ex-CEO and cofounder of F-Squared Investments, must pay more than $13M—nearly $11M of disgorgement, almost $1.4M of interest and a nearly $1.6M penalty. The final judgement, issued by U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston, comes after a federal jury found Present liable for the false and misleading statements made to investors.

It was in 2014 that the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Present and his investment management firm with misleading investors about its AlphaSector strategy. At the time, F-Squared was the biggest market of index products that use exchange-traded funds.

The SEC accused F-Squared of false advertising related to its touting of a “successful seven-year track records” for its AlphaSector strategy that it claimed was based on real investments, real clients, and real performances, when, in fact, the algorithm that the company claimed to use didn’t even exist during that time period of this supposed success. Instead, the data that the F-Squared marketed was a product of backtesting—not real testing—even though Present and his firm specifically stated that their AlphaSector strategy had not been backtested.

Jury Rules Against Former F-Squared CEO in SEC’s ETF Fraud Case

Published on: October 16, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A federal jury in Boston has found Howard Present, the ex-CEO of F-Squared Investments Inc., liable in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil lawsuit alleging exchange-traded fund fraud. The ruling determined that Present was in violation of the Investment Advisers Act.

According to the regulator, Present sought to defraud investors and acted recklessly in the way he marketed the history of the AlphaSector, which was F-Squared’s flagship product.

The SEC filed its securities fraud lawsuit against Present in 2014. That was when the regulator announced a $35M settlement reached with F-Squared, in which the firm admitted wrongdoing over claims that it misled investors in the way that it falsely marketed AlphaSector as having a lengthy and successful track record that utilized a strategy that a multibillion-dollar wealth manager had developed.

Ex-F-Squared CEO on Trial Against SEC in Exchange-Traded Fund Fraud Case

Published on: September 11, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In federal court in Boston, Howard Present, the former CEO and co-founder of F-Squared Investments Inc. is on trial over civil exchange-traded fund fraud charges brought against him by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Present is accused of lying about the firm’s flagship product, the AlphaSector model portfolio, to investors and making millions of dollars in the process.

According to the regulator, starting in 2008, Present touted the AlphaSector as having a successful track record going as far back as 2001. F-Squared claimed that this performance was based on a strategy developed by a multibillion dollar wealth manager when, in reality, it was based on an algorithm that had been applied to historical market information by the manager’s intern, who was a college student at a time. Also, the track record was hypothetical and not historical.

The regulator believes that there was a mistake in the hypothetical figures that caused a substantial inflation of investment performance that was used when creating marketing materials for the AlphaSector. The DEC contends that even though Present knew about the inaccuracies, he did not order a correction and continued to use the inflated performance numbers.

When F-Squared started marketing the strategy to possible clients, rather than stating that the potential performance of the strategy was set up in 2008, Present claimed that actual investment history had been used calculate the track record. A press release was even issued claiming that $100M in client money had been dedicated to the investment strategy for the past several years when the actual monetary figure for that was zero.

Virtus Investment Advisers to Pay $16.5M to Settle False Performances Claims Related to ETF Portfolio Strategy

Published on: November 16, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Virtus Investment Advisers will pay $16.5M to resolve charges accusing the investment management firm of misleading mutual fund investors and others using ads with false historical performance information about exchange-traded fund portfolio strategy AlphaSector. According to the regulator, the firm publicized a performance track record that it got from F-Squared that was substantially overstated. Virtus had hired F-Squared as a mutual fund subadvisor as well as a subadvisor for those that followed AlphaSector.

The SEC, following its probe, said that Virtus falsely stated in SEC filings, client presentations, marketing collateral, and other communications that the AlphaSector’s strategy had a performance history going as far back as 2001 and had for a number years outperformed the S & P 500 Index. The investment management firm is accused of accepting F-Squared’s misrepresentations as fact while disregarding the red flags that raised doubts about these statements.

Six years ago Virtus recommended that shareholders of specific mutual funds and the boards of trustees approve a modification in strategy and management to AlphaSector and F-Squared. This recommendation was made because of the false historical data on AlphaSector.

F-Squared Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Published on: July 8, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Exchange-traded fund manager F-Squared Investments Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. The firm wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to allow it to sell its intellectual property, including its investment strategies and contracts to manage money, to Broadmeadow Capital, a Chicago-based money manager.

It was in December that F-Squared agreed to pay investors $35 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges alleging that the firm misled investors about the performance of its Alpha Sector investment strategy. The regulator said that the ETF fund manager falsely marketed the strategy as having a successful track record that was based on actual performance.

Instead, contends the SEC, the data was from a hypothetical performance for a past period that was generated from backtesting. Also, a performance calculation error caused results to be inflated by 350%.

Advisers were attracted to this inflated performance record and F-Squared’s contention that its strategy could get around tough market shifts by engaging in opportunistic trading in and out of multiple industrial-sector ETFs. In seven years, the firm went from being practically a nonentity to having a $28.5 billion strategy as of last year.

F-Squared became the largest marketer of index products using ETFs. By the end of the year that ended in March 2015, however, the firm experienced a close to $8 billion asset decline. It reduced its workforce by 25%.
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Investor Want Wells Fargo Advisers to Pay $100K in Damages Over F-Squared Investment Losses

Published on: June 22, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A client of Wells Fargo Advisors (WFC) is looking to recover at least $100,000 in damages for losses he sustained from investing with F-Squared Investments Inc. The arbitration case comes six months after F-Squared consented to pay $35 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the asset manager of making false claims about its flagship investment product’s performance. The 68-year-old widower’s claim will test whether investors can pursue broker-dealers for selling F-Squared products.

The claimant, a moderately conservative investor who was looking for moderately conservative growth for his retirement account assets, began working with a Wells Fargo financial adviser in 2011. The brokerage firm made F-Squared managed-accounts available to advisors in 2013.

According to InvestmentNews, The investor’s advisor put about $900K of the client’s money-most of his savings, says his attorney-in products managed by two ETF strategists. Over 50% of the money went into F-Squared’s AlphaSector Allocator Select. Meantime, the investor said it paid Wells Fargo about $19,000 in fees for recommending the products. He believes that the firm had a conflict when it recommended investments because they came with such high commissions. Also, the fees erased potential capital gains for the claimant.
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Ex-F-Squared CEO Still Battling SEC, Firm Dealing With Fallout from Securities Fraud Charges

Published on: March 27, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

F-Squared Investments Inc. has laid off 40 workers-that’s one-fourth of its staff-as it continues to deal with the ongoing asset losses in the wake of the securities fraud charges filed against it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year. During a routine examination, the regulator discovered that the asset management company allegedly had deceived investors by claiming its performance history was based on a real trading record going as far back as 2001 when F-Squared had just back-tested its algorithm. F-Squared is the biggest marketer of index products using ETFs (exchange-traded funds).

The SEC accused the firm of falsely promoting its AlphaSector investment strategy and its supposed excellent track record as based on its investment performance for real clients instead of the backtesting. Due to a calculation error, the results were inflated by 350%.

F-Squared settled the SEC charges for $35 million and the firm’s new CEO, Laura P. Dagan, said that F-squared has been putting more effort into compliance and its main product line. However, in the last several months, investors have withdrawn billions of dollars from F-squared strategies while several brokerage firms refuse to let advisers put more funds into the strategies.

Exchange-Traded Fund Strategist F-Squared to Pay $35M to Settle Charges that It Misled Investors

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

F-Squared Investments Inc. has consented to pay $35M to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the firm of making false claims regarding the performance of a key investment product. F-Squared admitted that it misled clients for several years about its AlphaSector strategy.

F-Squared is the largest marketer of index products that use Exchange-Traded Funds. The SEC claims that F-Squared falsely advertised that the AlphaSector investment strategy had a successful track record that was based on actual investment performance for real clients when, in fact, the algorithm touted didn’t even exist during the noted time period.

The algorithm was the basis of signals sent from a third party data provider indicating when to sell or buy an investment. F-Squared and Howard Present, its co-founder and ex-CEO, used the signals to develop the AlphaSector, a model portfolio of sector ETFs that could be rebalanced from time to time when the signals changed. After its launch in 2008, AlphaSector’s indexes became the company’s largest revenue source.