Financial Firms

ISDAFix-Rigging Lawsuits Against Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and Others May Proceed, Says Judge

Published on: March 29, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has turned down the request by Barclays Plc (BARC), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Citigroup Inc. (C), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), HSBC Holdings Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), UBS AG (UBS), JPMorgan Chase & CO. (JPM), Wells Fargo & CO. (WFC), and Nomura Holdings Inc. to dismiss the antitrust lawsuits accusing them of working together to rig the ISDAfix. The benchmark rate is used to establish prices on commercial real estate mortgages, interest-rate swap transactions, and other securities. Another defendant is ICAP Plc, which brokered transactions that set the rate for ISDAfix.

Furman said that plaintiff Alaska Electrical Pension Fund and other investors have brought up “plausible allegations” that there may have been a conspiracy between the defendants that allowed them to collude with one another. The investors are seeking billions of dollars in losses they believe they sustained because ISDAFix was allegedly rigged. In this case, the judge let the breach-of-contract claims and antirust claims proceed to trial but dismissed the other claims.

UBS Ordered to Pay Investors Over $47K in Puerto Rico Bond Fraud Case

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

UBS Group AG (UBS) must pay Obdulio Melendez Ramos, Carlos L. Merced, and Ramon Velez Garcia over $470K for losses they sustained from investing in Puerto Rico bonds/bond funds that lost value. The three men filed their case with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They contend their accounts were over-concentrated in risky Puerto Rico bonds/bond funds. Ramos, Garcia, and Merced had alleged negligent supervision and fraud.

Addressing the panel’s ruling, a spokesperson for UBS called the decision “disappointing” and said that he disagreed with the outcome. In an emailed statement, Gregg Rosenberg contended that that there were specific circumstances involved with this case and its outcome was not a indicative of how other arbitrators might rule in similar cases. However, according to a recent supplement for the firm’s fourth quarter earnings results, since August 2013 drops in Puerto Rico municipal bond prices, as well as in the prices of related proprietary funds UBS manages and distributes, have led to customer complaints, regulatory inquiries, and arbitrations filed against the firm.

Claimed damages against UBS are estimated to total $1.5B. The vast majority of those claims are still outstanding.

Many investors have accused UBS Puerto Rico of inappropriately persuading them to invest in the island’s municipal bonds even though these investments were not appropriate for them. UBS brokers even purportedly encouraged some investors to borrow so that they could become more heavily invested in the bonds. When Puerto Rico bond prices plunged, it was the investors, many of whom were retirees, that suffered.

Mortgage Securities News: Supreme Court Rejects Banks’ FDIC Case, Credit Suisse to Pay NCUA $29M in MBS Case Involving Credit Unions, & Former Fannie Mae CEO Must Contend With SEC Fraud Claims

Published on: March 26, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

US Supreme Court Turns Down Banks’ Bid that It Examine FDIC Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to review the 2015 ruling made by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that revived the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) securities case accusing Goldman Sachs (GS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Deutsche Bank (DB) of misrepresenting the quality of securities it sold to Guaranty Bank, which later failed. The FDIC took the Texas bank into receivership in 2009 and sued the banks in 2014.

A judge in Austin, Tx. dismissed the case, citing a state law requiring that lawsuits be brought within five years of a mortgage-backed security’s sale. The complaint had been filed at least 9 years after the MBSs were sold.

Last August, the Fifth Circuit cited a 1989 federal law and revived the case. The appeals court said that the FDIC is allowed an extended time period to file complaints for institutions that it insures and have gone into receivership. Circuit Judge Carolyn Dineen King wrote that it was this federal law that made it possible for the FDIC to concentrate on dealing with bank failures rather than worrying about possible statutes and their limitations.

RBS, Goldman, and Deutsche then filed their petitioned with the U.S. Supreme Court. The banks pointed to a past holding by the highest court that barred other courts from preempting state law unless the U.S. Congress has made such a preemption clear.

Credit Suisse Resolves MBS Case for $29M
Credit Suisse (CS) must pay $29M to settle the National Credit Union Administration’s claim that it sold bad mortgage-backed-securities to credit unions. NCUA’s lawsuit revolves around MBSs that UBS (UBS) underwrote and sold to Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union and the Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union for over $228M from ’06 to ’07. Both credit unions have since failed.

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.

Michigan Pension Plan Sues LPL Financial for $115M

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

The Charter Township of Clinton Police and Fire Retirement System is suing LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA) for $115M. In the class action securities case, the plaintiff contends that a stock buyback program cost the firm and its shareholders that amount.

Company shares closed trading at $42.91 on October 29 when LPL announced the $500M program. Less than two months later, its stock began to drop in price. The stock was trading at $25.08/share yesterday morning.

The program was supposed to improve shareholder value. The following month, LPL said it had entered into $700M of new term loans while extending $631M of existing debt to pay for the share repurchase plan. Then, in December, the company said it had arrived at an early completion of the plan.

Financial Firms and Securities Cases: BNY Mellon to Pay $3M Over Computer Glitch that Affected Mutual Funds, Wedbush Fined $675K by FINRA and Nasdaq, and Triad Advisers Settles UIT Charges

Published on: March 21, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

BNY Mellon to Pay Massachusetts $3M Over Computer Problem That Impacted Mutual Funds

Bank of New York Mellon (BK) will pay $3 million to the state of Massachusetts to resolve a probe that found that a computer glitch did not calculate net asset values for over 1,000 mutual funds. Although the bank hired SunGard InvestOne to calculate these values, there was one-weekend last year when a malfunction occurred.

The Massachusetts Securities Division conducted an investigation and discovered that BNY Mellon lacked a back-up plan to deal with such a malfunction. Because of this, non-uniform and untimely information was sent to clients and funds. As Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin noted, it is the job of financial institutions like BNY Mellon to oversee third-party vendors and put into place a back-up plan in the event a vendor’s system fails. The bank says that in the wake of the outage, it took action to protect client interests and ensure that the daily net asset values were issued.

BNY Mellon said that it has since made investors and the funds that sustained losses because of the computer error whole. The bank has made changes to supervisory procedures.

WedBush to Pay $675K Fine to Nasdaq and FINRA over Trading and Clearing Errors Involving Exchange-Traded Funds

Wedbush Securities Inc. will pay a $675K fine to the Nasdaq Stock Market and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. over clearing and trading mistakes involving redemption and trading activities related to leveraged ETFs. Wedbush served as Scout Trading, LLC’s clearing firm.

According to FINRA, from 1/10 to 2/12, Scout Trading was not long enough in the shares that made up the redemption orders. Scott Trading turned in more than 250 naked redemption orders via Wedbush. These involved nearly a dozen ETFS that totalled over 295 million shares. This activity and ETF short-selling on the second market by Scout Trading led to Wedbush’s failure to deliver on a number of occasions. (This could have led to a naked short sale in which the seller does not arrange to borrow the securities in a manner timely enough for the buyer to receive the delivery within the standard three days.)

Stockbroker Fraud: Ex-JPMorgan Broker Who Gambled Gets Five Years, FINRA Bars Broker Over Elder Financial Fraud, Risky Alternative Investment Sales and Ex-Broker is Indicted by Jury for Allegedly Bilking Clients of $2.8M

Published on: March 15, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former JPMorgan Broker Who Stole Over $20M from Richest Clients, Gambled, Goes to Prison
Michael Oppenheim, a former broker with JPMorgan Chase & CO. (JPM), has been sentenced to five years behind bars. Oppenheim pleaded guilty last year to stealing over $20 million from 10 of his richest clients. At one point Oppenheim managed nearly $90 million for 500 clients. He claims he was addicted to sports gambling.

He began betting on NFL games in 1993 and later got involved in online sports betting. After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, he began stealing from clients to cover his losses. Oppenheim also started options trading in tech stocks to repay these clients and in one day lost $2.7M. He concealed the theft by providing customers with bogus account statements.

Prosecutors contend that Oppenheim persuaded clients to take out up to millions of dollars from their accounts by promising to put their money in low risk municipal bonds that would be kept at the bank. Instead, he used the funds to get cashier’s checks that he deposited into accounts that were his but located outside the bank. Oppenheim purportedly targeted clients he knew wouldn’t be watching their accounts closely. His scam went on for over seven years.

FINRA Bars Broker for Senior Financial Fraud
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has barred David Joseph Escarcega from the financial industry. Escarcega is accused of making a dozen unsuitable recommendations involving debentures tied to the life insurance policy secondary market and targeting elderly clients. He must also pay a $52,270 fine, which is how much he kept in commissions.

According to FINRA, Escarcega sold the debt instruments, which were issued by CWG Holdings Inc., from 3/12 to 6/13. The regulator said that the debentures were very risky and only suitable for investors that could afford to lose all of their investments. The 12 customers involved in this matter were not that type of investor. A lot of the investments were placed in IRAs.
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North Carolina Retiree Couple Files FINRA Arbitration Case Against Morgan Stanley Over Energy Investment

Published on: March 8, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Two North Carolina investors have filed an arbitration claim with FINRA against Morgan Stanley (MS) over unsuitable investments involving the financial firm’s Cushing MLP High Income Exchange Traded Note. The married couple, who are retirees in their sixties, are accusing the brokerage firm of:

· Common law fraud

· Negligence

· Breach of fiduciary duty

· Negligent supervision

· Failure to adequately disclose the risks

In a phone interview with InvestmentNews, the claimants said that they have lost over $100K. According to the couple, a Morgan Stanley broker invested about $150,000 of their money in the Morgan Stanley Cushing MLP High Income ETN, which is an exchange traded note connected to master limited partnerships with shipping and energy assets. Their legal team said that the couple did not understand the extent of the risks involved in that they could potentially lose their principal. This was a loss they could not afford. Instead, the claimants were purportedly told that their investment would make them money.

The Cushing MLP High Income Exchange Traded Note seeks to give investors cash upon maturity or early repurchase, as well as variable coupon payments every quarter (depending on how the underlying index, performs). The claimants’ broker fraud lawyers believe that Morgan Stanley recommended the exchange traded note to investors who were seeking to make money but may not have understood or been fully apprised of all the risks.

SEC Charges Wells Fargo Securities, Rhode Island Agency with Bilking Investors Over Municipal Bond Offering

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

The Securities and Exchange omission has filed charge against Wells Fargo Securities (WFC) and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. accusing them of fraud in a municipal bond offering. According to the regulator, RIEDC, now called Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, used $75M in bonds to finance 38 Studios, which is a startup video game company. Wells Fargo served as the bond underwriter.

The SEC is charging RIEDC and Wells Fargo with Securities Act of 1933 violations. Wells Fargo is also charged with violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Municipal Securitas Rulemaking Board’s Rules G-17 and G-32.

The 38 Studios project was part of a state government program to increase economic development and employment opportunities through the lending of bond proceeds to private companies. The regulator said the RIEDC lent $50M in bond proceeds to the video game company, while the remaining proceeds went toward bond offering-related costs and the setting up of a reserve fund and a capitalized interest fund. The loan and investors were to be paid back through revenues made by video games that 38 Studios intended to make.

Royal Bank of Scotland Ordered to Pay Fired Executive for $2.05M

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

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel says that Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) securities division in the U.S. must pay Jeffrey Howard, an ex-executive that it fired, $2.05M in compensatory damages because of the way he was let go. The bank must also retract his termination and expunge his regulatory record of any comments that are defamatory.

The FINRA arbitration panel’s case summary said that according to Howard, the bank fired him because it didn’t want people to find out that there was “significant internal turmoil” at the financial institution. Howard, who joined the firm’s RBS Securities in 2012 as head of its prime services for the Americas, eventually went on to become global-co-head of the group and then later its sole head. Previous to all of that he worked at Bank of America (BAC) Merrill Lynch. After he was let go by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2014, Howard filed a breach of contract and defamation case with FINRA contending that the disclosure about his firing was false.

According to the FINRA panel, Howard should not have been let go for cause. It found that the bank made fundamental mistakes and inconsistencies in: the way it interpreted internal policies and put them into effect, the facts it employed to decide to fire him, and the rationale behind that decision. The panel said that Howard did not violate any internal policies.