Broker Fraud

Securities Regulator News: NASAA Offers Guide to Protecting Senior Investors and other Vulnerable Adults, States Disclose 2015 Enforcement Statistics, and SEC to Scrutinize Firms With Rogue Brokers

Published on: September 12, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NASAA Puts Out Practices and Procedures Guide to Protect Vulnerable Adults

The North American Securities Administrators Association has issued a guide to help investment advisory firms and broker-dealers create procedures and practices to help them identify and tackle suspected incidents of financial exploitation involving vulnerable adult clients, including senior investors and adults with diminished capacity. The guide provides steps that revolve around five key concepts:

Identifying who is a vulnerable individual
Governmental reporting
Third-party reporting
Delaying disbursement from the account of a client who is a vulnerable adult
Ongoing regulator cooperation when a disbursement is delayed or a report of suspected financial exploitation is made.

It was just recently that NASAA put into effect its Model Act to Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation and this guide is a companion to the act.

If you are an elderly investor or a vulnerable adult who has suffered losses due to fraud, call our senior financial fraud law firm today.

FINRA Files Securities Fraud Charges Against NY Broker For Churning Accounts of Blind, 77-Year-Old Widow

Published on: August 1, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a securities fraud case against Hank Mark Werner. The self-regulatory organization is accusing the New York broker of churning the account of a 77-year old widow who is blind, and engaging in unsuitable and excessive trading involving her account. FINRA claims that Werner charged the elderly customer over 243K in commissions while he churned her accounts for over three years and caused her to sustain about $184K in losses.

According to FINRA, Werner, who had been the broker of the elderly widow’s husband since 1995, until he passed away four years ago, started aggressively trading her accounts after he died. The SRO claims that Werner did this to earn excessive commissions.

From 10/12 to 10/15, Werner placed more than 700 trades in over 200 securities while charging the elderly customer commission or a markup on every sale and purchase. Because she was seriously debilitated, blind, and needed in-home care, the woman was totally dependent on Werner to let her know how her account was doing.

Ex-Prudential Financial and MetLife Broker is Barred over Deceptive MetLife Variable Anuuity Sales

Published on: July 13, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA has banned Winston Wade Turner from the securities industry. The former Prudential (PRU) and MetLife (MET) broker is accused of engaging in deceptive variable annuities sales. Turner was fired from Pruco Securities, a Prudential subsidiary, in 2015. The cause of his firing was deceptive sales practices.

Now, FINRA has barred him for a number of causes, including giving false information to clients about variable annuity sales, the fraudulent misrepresentation and omission of key facts to customers about the sales, providing false information in VA-related documents, and not giving testimony to the self-regulatory organization during its probe into this matter.

According to the SRO, Turner fraudulently misrepresented and omitted material facts about VA sales and concealed that he had persuaded a lot of customers to give up existing variable annuities or other investments so that they would buy the newer VAs that he was selling. He is accused of persuading at least 12 clients to trade their existing investments for this purpose, costing them over $150K in surrender charges.

FINRA Accuses Broker of Encouraging Clients to Invest in High-Risk Exchange-Traded Funds Because He Anticipated Financial Turmoil

Published on: June 28, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a case against Richard William Lunn Martin, a former broker. According to the self-regulatory organization, from at least 3/11 through 7/15, and while he was a GF Investment services broker, Martin encouraged clients to invest in high-risk non-traditional exchange-traded funds so he could hedge against what he anticipated would be a pending financial crisis. Martin purportedly believed that the financial and monetary system was going to fail. FINRA said that he lost customers $8M as a result of the bad investment advice he gave them.

Because of his fears, said FINRA, Martin recommend that clients put their money in inverse and leveraged funds, which are typically not suitable for retail investors. This is especially true when the market is volatile and the investor intends to hold the funds for longer than one trading session. Examples of recommendations that he made:

· Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 2x Shares (DUST)

· Proshares UltraPro Short Russe112000 (SRTY)

· Proshares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ)

Securities Headlines: FINRA Enforcement Officials Say They Are Keeping Their Eyes on Variable Annuities, Massachusetts Goes Looking for Rogue Brokers, and Man is Accused of Scamming Women He Met Online

Published on: June 16, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Takes a Closer Look at Variable Annuities
At a recent Insured Retirement Institute Conference, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. enforcement officials said that even though variable annuities are not on the regulator’s list of examination priorities for 2016 this doesn’t mean it isn’t scrutinizing them. FINRA Sr. VP/deputy enforcement chief Russ Ryan said that variable annuities often are involved in its cases.

It was just recently that FINRA charged MetLife (MET) $25M for making misrepresentations and omissions related to variable annuity sales. New products were marketed as less costly and better than the variable annuities that clients already owned when, in truth, said the regulator, the clients should have stayed with these older investments. The alleged misrepresentations and omissions were found in 72% of 35,500 applications for variable annuity replacements that were approved by MetLife.

FINRA said that training and supervision were a key factor in the case, which is what they are also seeing in other variable annuity cases. The regulator is also looking at L-share variable annuities, which offer greater liquidity and a shorter surrender-penalty period.

With a variable annuity contract, an insurer consents to pay the investor periodic payments either right away or in the future. The investor buys the contract with a single payment or a series of payments. The VA’s value will depend on performance and the investment options selected by the investor.

Massachusetts Targets Rogue Brokers
The Massachusetts Securities Division is going after rogue brokers. The regulator sent a letter to more than 240 firms that have a higher than average number of reps who have been reported for misconduct. The state says it wants the firms’ hiring information and is interested in learning about brokerage firms’ hiring procedures and policies. The letter was issued to financial firms where over 15% of their current representatives have at least one current disclosure incident documented.

FINRA Bars Broker From Industry For Allegedly Bilking Older Woman He Met at Church

Published on: May 24, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former Thrivent Investment Management Inc. broker Miguel Angel Hernandez is now barred from the brokerage industry. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., he defrauded an older woman whom he met at church. He allegedly took $25K in ’10 but paid her back in ’15 after the misconduct was exposed.

Hernandez is accused of telling the customer that he needed the money to pay for expenses related to his tax business even though he doesn’t own that type of business. Instead, he allegedly used her funds for his own spending.

Hernandez purportedly promised the woman a 2% stake in this supposed business in five years in addition to quarterly payments of nearly $1100 for 3-to-10 years. Even though he is settling, Hernandez is not denying or admitting to the charges.

In other elder fraud news, U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) is asking state securities regulators to help her move forward a bill that would make it easier for professional industry members to report when they suspect an older person is being financially exploited. Collins chairs the Senate Aging Committee. She made her request at a recent North American Securities Administrators Association conference.

If passed, the legislation would implement protections so that financial abuse could be reported across the states. While the bill already has several bipartisan cosponsors, it needs additional support to make it through the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate.

Older investors suffer $2.9B in losses yearly as victims of financial scams, and state regulators are ramping up their efforts to combat this type of elder abuse. Sometimes the fraudster is a member of the securities industry. There are also family members, caregivers, and friends that have been known to bilk senior investors.

If you or someone you love is a senior investor and you suspect that he/she is the victim of fraud, contact our elder financial fraud law firm today.

Former Thrivent broker barred from securities business for defrauding woman he met at church: Finra, InvestmentNews, May 17, 2016

FINRA

Senate Aging Committee

Securities Fraud Cases: Ex-Head of MICG Investment Management Firm Faces 13 New Charges, SEC Accuses Unregistered Brokers of Bilking Investors in $6M Scam, and $250M Pump-And-Dump Case Leads to Guilty Plea

Published on: May 18, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Government Charges Convicted Broker with More Fraud Charges
Jeffrey Martinovich is charged with 13 new counts of fraud. He is is ex-head of MICG Investment Management and was convicted of 17 fraud charges three years ago.

Martinovich is accused of improperly moving over $700K from a company hedge fund in 2010. According to prosecutors, he spent $170K of the funds for his legal defense fees and at least $59K on his personal expenses. He also purportedly took out over $147K more from the hedge fund account.

It was in 2011 that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority expelled Martinovich and his firm for securities fraud, improperly using client money, and causing false statements to be sent to investors related to the MICG Venture Strategies LLC, a proprietary hedge fund. The self-regulatory organization said that Martinovich and MICG improperly assigned asset values that were excessive to two non-public securities.

FINRA said that the assets’ value were inflated so that incentive and management fee could be increased.

Offshore Broker Pleads Guilty in $250M Pump-and-Dump Scam
Gregg Mulholland has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for operating a pump-and-dump-scam that manipulated shares of over 40 companies in the U.S. One company, Cynk Technology, saw its share price increase by 24,000%.

Nine Brokers Charged in $131M Stock Scam

Published on: May 4, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Nine financial professionals are charged with scamming investors in a $131M financial fraud involving Forcefield Energy Inc. According to authorities, from 12/09 to 4/15 the defendants, which include brokers, stock promoters, and investor relations officials, manipulated the LED lighting provider’s stock by trading it in secret, using undisclosed accounts, hiding kickbacks that were paid to brokers and stock promoters to tout the stock, and inflating the volume of trades to make it seem as if there was a real demand for the stock. Also this week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against the nine defendants and former ForceField executive chairman Richard St. Julien who was arrested last year on charges accusing him of running scams to inflate his company’s stock price.

Speaking about the criminal case, U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said that the defendants took a business that didn’t have much revenue and “essentially no business” and fooled their clients and the market into thinking that it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The nine defendant are charged with securities fraud, and conspiracies to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. They are former Stratton Oakmont Inc. broker Christopher Castaldo, unregistered broker Louis F. Petrossi, Mitchell & Sullivan Capital LLC managing partner of investor relations Jared Mitchell, registered representatives Richard L. Brown, Naveed A. Khan, Gerald J. Cocuzzo, Maroof Miyana, and Pranav V. Patel, and Kenai Capital Management LLC head Herschel Knippa III.

NY Broker –Dealer Owner Charged in $17.2M Ponzi Scam

Published on: March 25, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Guy Gentile, who owns a New York-based brokerage firm, is charged with fraudulently inflating two micro-cap stocks’ prices before selling them to investors. His alleged actions purportedly allowed him to make $17.2M in gross trading proceeds.

Gentile was indicted in federal court. He and co-conspirators Itamar Cohen and Michael Taxon, both Canadian stock promoters, are accused of buying Kentucky USA Energy Inc. and Raven Gold Corp. shares from 4/07 to 6/08 and then using misleading marketing collateral and manipulative trading to inflate the shares. Taxon and Cohen have already pleaded guilty to their involvement in the Ponzi scheme. Gentile, who is charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, could be facing twenty years in prison.

Running a Ponzi scam is not the only way to get in trouble for it. Connecticut fund manager Marlon Quann has been ordered to surrender nearly $81M in profit for helping Thomas Petters run his $3.5B Ponzi scheme. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that Quann hid evidence of the fraud in part with $187M in “round trip” transactions.” The SEC also sued Quan’s Acorn Capital Group LLC, Stewardship Investment Advisors LLC, and ACG II LLC.

Elder Investors: Morgan Stanley Must Pay Home Shopping Network’s Estate Over $34M, Broker Accused of Making Over $1.7M From Churning at Craig Scott Capital, and $10M Ponzi Scam Involving Jamaican Businesses Targets Older Investors

Published on: March 24, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Panel Awards Estate Over $34M from Morgan Stanley in the Wake of Churning Allegations
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel awarded the estate of Home Shopping Network Roy M. Speer over $34M in its case against Morgan Stanley (MS). The panel ruled that the firm, branch manager Terry McCoy, and broker Ami Forte were jointly liable for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, unauthorized trading, constructive fraud, unjust enrichment, and negligent supervision. The alleged negligence would have occurred from 1/09 to 6/12 and involved investments in the financial services and banking sectors.

According to Mrs. Speer’s lawyer, in six of Mr. Speer’s accounts, about 12,000 transactions took place, most of them involving municipal bond trading and corporate trading. Many of these trades were unauthorized.

The arbitrators awarded $32.8M in compensatory damages to Speer’s widow, Lynnda Speer, and $1.5M for the costs involved in the arbitration process. The panel said that Morgan Stanley violated a law in Florida that prohibits the exploitation of vulnerable adults. Mr. Speer had dementia. Forte, who was his broker, is said to have been in a relationship with him.

Former Craig Scott Capital Broker Accused of Elder Financial Fraud
FINRA is accusing broker Edward Beyn of making over $1.7M in commissions and fees by engaging in excessive trading in client accounts while he was a registered representative at Craig Scott Capital. He is now with Rothschild Liberman. Beyn is accused of churning nine accounts of six customers, all of them over the age of 60, from 3/12 through 5/15. They all sustained losses.