The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Provident Royalties, LLC, Provident Asset Management LLC, and founders Brendan Coughlin, Paul Melbye, and Henry Harrison with Texas securities fraud over their alleged involvement in a $485 million investment scam. The SEC claims the defendants used the ponzi scheme to defraud thousands…
Our securities fraud lawyers are investigating claims for clients of Richard Buswell and Brookstone Securities over private placement units sales in Advanced Blast Protection, as well as charges that clients received unsuitable recommendations. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has made public records noting that Brookstone Securities terminated Buswell’s employment this…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas says it won’t dismiss the securities fraud lawsuit against Frank Cole, the former head of Energytec Inc. The plaintiffs are accusing Cole, Energytec, and others of taking part in a fraudulent oil investment scam that cost investors millions of dollars.…
Former Congressman Michael Huffington is suing Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, and affiliated companies for more than $20 million in investment losses. Huffington, the ex-husband of columnist Arianna Huffington, says he was misled about the safety of a fund that contained mortgage-backed securities. The closed-end fund, Carlyle Capital, was…
Last week, the Staff of the Atlanta Regional Office of the US Securities and Exchange Commission sent Morgan Keegan & Co, Inc., Morgan Asset Management, Inc., and three employees a “Wells” notice. The notice stated the Staff’s intention to recommend that the Commission bring enforcement actions over possible federal securities…
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the amount of investor fraud claims alleging securities fraud and other violations has grown. From January to May 2009, investors filed 3,163 stockbroker fraud claims-an 85% increase from the 1,711 stockbroker fraud arbitration claims that were filed for the same period in 2008.…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission says Ameriprise Financial Services has consented to pay $17.3 million to settle allegations that it received millions of dollars in undisclosed compensation in exchange for selling certain REITs (real estate investment trusts) to its brokerage customers. The SEC says Ameriprise demanded and got “revenue…
Morgan Stanley is taking low grade collateralized debt obligations, repackaging these in into new pooled securities and obtaining questionable AAA ratings. The broker-dealer plans to sell $130 million CDO’s this way in a manner similar to the way banks have been dealing with commercial mortgage-backed securities. The repackaged CDO is…
The US Labor Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission want to know why target-date mutual funds, which were supposed to get safer as investors aged, have become more high risk. Large mutual fund firms, including Vanguard and Fidelity , promised that as investors approached their retirement target-date funds would…
According to Stifel Financial Corp., 95% of its clients with frozen auction-rate securities have indicated that they will accept its offer to buy back the investments over a three-year period. Missouri Securities Regulator and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, however, continues to maintain that the buyback plan is inadequate. She…