Financial Firms

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

Investors Can Sue Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch For Illegal Short Selling in State Court, Rules U.S. Supreme Court

Published on: May 23, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a unanimous ruling allowing investors to sue Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch (BAC) and other brokerage firms in New Jersey state court even though the lawsuit cites federal laws. The plaintiffs, who are Spectrum Group International Inc. investors, claim that they sustained investment losses because the brokers engaged in illegal short-selling. They are invoking NJ’s RICO statute in their case. RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It is a federal law that allows for victims of organized crime to seek civil damages. It also provides provisions for other extended penalties. Bank of America Merrill Lynch claims that this naked short selling case is meritless.

The plaintiffs are accusing Merrill Lynch and other broker-dealers of playing a part in causing Spectrum’s market capitalization to drop by $800M in 11 months. The investors said that the firms did this by helping naked short sellers who bet against the company, causing its share price to plunge.

Naked Short Sales
A short sale involves the use of borrowed shares to bet that a security’s price with drop. The short sale is naked if the trader doesn’t borrow the shares required to make the transaction happen. Under Regulation SHO, naked short sales cannot be used to manipulate a security. Still, lawsuits over illegal naked short selling haven’t done too well in federal court.

Former UBS Trader is Helping Prosecutors Pursue Forex Rigging Cases Against Individuals

Published on: May 19, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Bloomberg reports that according to sources, Matt Gardiner, a former UBS Group AG (UBS) trader who was part of the instant-messaging group the federal government identified when obtaining guilty pleas from Barclays PLC (BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), UBS, Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan Chase & Co.(JPM) over currency-rate manipulation, is working with prosecutors to pursue certain individuals over the rigging allegations. The Cartel chat room to which Gardiner belonged existed from at least 12/07 through 1/013.

According to prosecutors, traders who were part of the chat room communicated in code to share information about orders made by clients and to coordinate euro-dollar trades so that they could make more money. Having someone like Gardiner working with the government could help prosecutors understand what the traders were doing together. It’s unknown at this time whether his cooperation is part of a prosecution deal he may have reached.

His former firm, UBS, was granted immunity from antitrust charges because it was the first financial institution to report the market misconduct. Meantime, the banks whose traders were in the Cartel have turned over chat transcripts to the U.S. Department of Justice and foreign authorities. A lot of the chats occurred right before daily fixes, which is the short period of time when data providers are able to get a picture of trading in order to establish daily rates.

Wells Fargo to Pay UBS $1M Over Broker Departure

Published on: May 17, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Wells Fargo Advisors LLC (WFC) to pay UBS Financial Services Inc. $1.1M to resolve a claim involving financial adviser David Kinnear who went to work for the Wells Fargo & Co. brokerage arm after leaving the UBS Group AG (UBS) unit. UBS claims that Kinnear stole thousands of client and business records, as well as proprietary information, after resigning from the firm.

The Wall Street Journal reports that according to a source, Kinnear downloaded the data and distributed it to clients. UBS contends that the compensation Kinnear received at Wells Fargo was related to his ability to successfully bring UBS clients with him. UBS also claims that Kinnear owes it promissory notes.

Wells Fargo denies UBS’s allegations. It submitted a counterclaim accusing the firm of unfair completion, including preventing clients from moving from UBS to Wells Forgo.

Under the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, brokers are only allowed to bring the names and contact information of clients that they serviced while having worked at a firm when moving to another brokerage firm.

Oppenheimer Shuts Down Its Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund

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

After nearly twenty years, Oppenheimer (OPY) is liquidating its Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund (QRAAX) in mid-July. The reason for the shut down is underperformance.

According to the company’s website, the Oppenheimer Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund lost 49% since it was created in 1997, and average yearly returns have consistently declined by the double digits. The Wall Street Journal reported that the commodity fund has lost money annually since hitting an 8.5% return in 2010. It’s also been up 7.19% since the beginning of 2016. However InvestmentNews reports, the fund’s performance has been poor over the last five years. The Oppenheimer fund’s assets under management is down to $269M from over $2B in 2011.

While Oppenheimer said that it continues to believe in the value of its investment strategy, the firm is now saying that investors would benefit more from a multi-asset portfolio. The Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund is most heavily involved in energy, with agriculture and precious industrial metals also big presences. The decline in their prices have played a factor in the fund’s decline.

Oppenheimer has also been in the spotlight of late because a lawmaker has asked the SEC to look into OppenheimerFunds and whether the firm has complied with securities laws when dealing with Puerto Rico bond investments. NY City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverto believes that the firm helped to make the U.S. territory’s financial crisis worse. OppenheimerFunds is heavily invested in Puerto Rico. The Island owes more than $70B in debt.

Oppenheimer Shuts Down Its Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund, The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2016

NY City Council Speaker Wants SEC to Investigate Oppenheimer Funds Over Puerto Rico Debt Crisis, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, May 9, 2016

Securities News: $5.95B RMBS Lawsuit Against Moody’s is Reinstated, Barclays Traders Remain on Trial, And Former Bank CEO Enters Guilty Plea to Fraud Charges

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

1st Circuit Reinstates Lawsuit Against Moody’s
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the $5.9 billion residential mortgage-backed securities fraud case brought by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston against Moody’s Investor’s Service, Inc. and Moody’s Corp. The bank claims that the credit rating agency knowingly issued false ratings on certain RMBSs that it had purchased.

A district court judge in Massachusetts had dismissed the lawsuit citing lack of personal jurisdiction. The judge also held that the court could not move the lawsuit to a different court where jurisdiction would be proper because cases dismissed for lack of jurisdiction could only be transferred if the dismissal was for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, not personal jurisdiction.

Now the First Circuit has vacated that ruling and found that transferring a case that has dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction is also allowed. It is moving the RMBS case to the district court, which will decide whether to move the case to New York.

Former Barclays Trader Pleaded Guilty to Libor Rigging
According to prosecutors in the U.K., ex-Barclays Plc. (BARC) trader Peter Johnson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manipulate the London interbank offered rated in 2014. The government announced the guilty plea this week after lifting a court order that had prevented the plea from being reported until now. The disclosure comes as the criminal trial against five of Johnson’s former Barclays co-workers into related allegations is underway.

The defendants on trial are Jay Merchant, Stylianos Contogoulas, Alex Pabon, Ryan Reich, and Jonathan Matthew. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit fraud. The U.K.’s serious fraud office claims that the men acted dishonestly when they turned in or asked others to submit rates for Libor.

JPMorgan to Pay $150M to Pension Funds Over London Whale-Related Losses

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

A U.S. district court judge has approved a settlement reached at the end of last year between JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and pension funds related to trades made by Bruno Iksil, who earned the nickname “London Whale” because of his huge market-moving positions in credit derivatives. In their class action securities case, the plaintiffs accused the firm of using its chief investment office in London as a secret hedge fund and hiding up to $6.2M in losses.

Even though the office was supposed to be primarily for managing risk, the plaintiffs believe that it was making high-risk trades for profit, including trading in complex credit derivatives. Depositors’ money was purportedly used in secret for making certain trades. Shareholders claim that JPMorgan knew about the increased risks it was taking and hiding them.

JPMorgan has not admitted to wrongdoing by settling this deal. However, it was also fined over $1B by regulators in the U.K. and the U.S. for management deficiencies related to the London Whale scandal.

Ex-Deutsche Bank Broker Found Guilty for Insider Trading Related to Operation Tabernula Probe

Published on: May 10, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Martyn Dodgson, a former Deutsche Bank AG (DB) broker and managing director, and Andrew Hind, an accountant, were convicted of insider trading in London. The Financial Conduct Authority said that that Dodgson and another broker gave insider information about certain business deals to Hind, who then passed on the information to two other traders. They allegedly made $10.7M from trading half a dozen stocks in what is being called the largest insider trading case in the U.K.

The probe into the insider trading allegations, known as Operation Tabernula, has been going on for nine years. Already, three other convictions have been rendered related to the investigation. According to prosecutors, those involved employed conventional techniques and modern technology to conceal their trades. For example, they would meet at Indian restaurants where they’d hand over money in envelopes. They also purportedly used pay-as-you-go phones and encrypted memory sticks.

After investigators planted a bug in the office of day trader Benjamin Anderson, a conversation was recorded involving Iraj Parvizi, another day trader, in which Dodgson was described. Anderson and Parvizi, who were both acquitted of criminal charges, claimed that they had no reason to believe that the tips they were receiving was insider information.

It was in 2014 that former Moore Capital Management LLC trader Julian Rifat pleaded guilty to insider trading in an offshoot probe of this investigation. He admitted to sharing insider information that he received while employed at the firm to associate Graeme Shelley, who then traded to benefit the two of them. Shelley, who was formerly with Novum Securities, also pleaded guilty to insider dealing with Rifat and associate Paul Milsom, who entered his own guilty plea.

NY City Council Speaker Wants SEC to Investigate Oppenheimer Funds Over Puerto Rico Debt Crisis

Published on: May 9, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to InvestmentNews, New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to conduct a probe into OppenheimerFunds, Inc. (“OPY”) and its impact on Puerto Rico’s financial woes. Speaker Mark-Viverito believes that the asset-management company played a part in making Puerto Rico’s financial crisis worse by investing even more in the island’s debt. She claims that just in the last eight months, OppenheimerFunds has added $500 million to investments it made in Puerto Rican debt.

Right now, the U.S. territory owes over $70 billion in debt, which it is struggling to pay. It recently defaulted on over $370 million of a bond payment that was due this month. Another $2 billion is due in July, including around $700 million in general obligation debt.

To satisfy investor redemptions, OppenheimerFunds has sold its non-Puerto Rico bonds, which would have raised the current allocation of the asset manager’s funds to the Commonwealth. In a letter to the SEC, Mark-Viverito, who was born in Puerto Rico, urged the agency to look into whether Oppenheimer has complied with all regulations and securities laws when handling its Puerto Rican bond investments. She believes banks, hedge funds, and other investors in the territory’s general-obligation bonds and utility debt are to blame for the island’s financial woes.

Four Credit Suisse Bankers Accused of Unauthorized Trading in Rich Clients’ Accounts, Bank of America Settles Mortgage Case for $190M, and Goldman Sachs to Pay Illinois Pension Fund $272M

Published on: May 7, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Bank of America to Pay Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle $190M
Bank of America Corp. will pay $190M to resolve mortgage-backed securities fraud charges brought by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. The SEC filing stated that the settlement was reached last month and that most of it was previously accrued. The lawsuit alleged misstatements and omissions during the issuance of MBSs.

It was just earlier this year that Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and 10 other banks agreed to pay over $63M to resolve accusations that they misrepresented residential mortgage-backed securities to the Virginia Retirement System and the state of Virginia.

Judge Approves $270M Mortgage-Backed Securities Fraud Settlement Involving Goldman Sachs
A federal judge has approved the proposed settlement between Goldman Sachs (GS) and lead plaintiff NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund, as well as 400 bondholders and another electrical union pension fund. The Illinois pension fund for electrical workers brought the case in 2008, accusing the firm of leaving out key information and making false statements about the mortgages it sold into 17 trusts the year before.