Financial Firms

Securities Headlines: Ohio Financial Adviser Faces Criminal Charges, Petters Ponzi Scam Investors Still Waiting for Their Money, and FINRA Recommends Disciplinary Action Against Ex-Jefferies Bond Trader

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

Ohio Financial Adviser is Indicted in $15M Securities Fraud
Evolution Partners Wealth Management owner Larry Werbel has been indicted on criminal charges accusing him of involvement in a securities scam to bilk at least 100 investor of over $15M. Werbel recruited investors for shares of VgTel Inc. He and other brokers purportedly promised high dividends even though the shares were sold and purchased by companies belonging to the alleged scammers so that they could artificially inflate the share price.

According to prosecutors, over $9M of investor funds were pockets by the fraudsters. Werbel, who prosecutors say got investors to purchase $3M in VgTel shares, received over $300K in kickbacks.

He is charged with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to federal officers. Werbel claims he is innocent.

Meantime, the man accused of masterminding the securities scam, Edward Durante, was arrested in Germany and brought back to the US last month. He previously was convicted of securities fraud in 2011. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil case against Evolution Partners, Durante, and others.
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Goldman Sachs to Pay $5.1B in Mortgage-Backed Securities Investigation, $15M Over Purported Improper Securities Lending Practices

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

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has consented to pay approximately $5.1B to resolve a government investigation into the way it dealt with mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. The settlement was reached in principal with the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group of the U.S. Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. It must be finalized, still, with definitive documentation to be agreed upon by the parties involved.

The settlement resolves potential and current claims made by attorneys general in Illinois and New York, the US Justice Department, Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Seattle, and the National Credit Union Administration. Goldman is accused of packaging mortgage securities it knew would do badly and selling them off to investors. At issue are the bank’s underwriting, securitization, and sale of bonds from ’05 to ’07.

As part of the settlement, Goldman will pay a $2.39B civil penalty, $1.8B in consumer relief, and $875 million in cash payments. The consumer relief includes loan forgiveness for beleaguered borrowers and homeowners, affordable housing support, construction financing, debt restructuring support, improvement programs related to housing quality, and foreclosure prevention.

FINRA Bars Ex-National Securities Broker Zachary Bader Over Investor Fraud Allegations

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

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is permanently barring former National Securities broker Zachary Bader from the securities industry in the wake of allegations filed by numerous investors. Bader, who was let go from the National Securities Corporation, also was previously registered with Craig Scott Capital and Brookstone Securities. According to BrokerCheck, five customer complaints and two regulatory sanctions have been brought against him.

Bader is accused of excessive trading, making unsuitable investment recommendations to at least 21 customers by advising them to put their money in the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (VXX), showing reckless disregard of clients’ interests, improper due diligence, breach of fiduciary duty, churning, providing inadequate investment advice, and breach of contract.

iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term (VXX)
The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term is an exchange-traded note. Many ETNs are only appropriate for short-term trading and/or institutional investors. For example, the VXX exposes investors to returns of certain futures contracts on the VIX Index and it is considered a bearish investment. It is not appropriate for certain equity positions. The VXX comes with very specific risks and over time will lose value as futures contracts on the VIX Index go down too.
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Puerto Rico Will Make $330M in Bond Payments, Defaults on About $37M

Published on: December 31, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will pay about $330 million of what it owes on general obligation bonds, while defaulting on bonds of approximately $37 million that are mostly owed to the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Financing Authority (Prifa) and the Public Finance Corp. Puerto Rico general obligation debt is constitutionally-guaranteed and some of the money to pay for that debt had been originally earmarked for bonds that do not have as strong of legal protections.

This has led to Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., which together insure over $860 million in Prifa bonds, sending a letter to Puerto Rico government officials. In the note, they called the redirecting of the funds illegal.

This is not the first time Puerto Rico has defaulted on bond payments owed. It missed payments last year and its government has already warned that further payments may be missed this year. The territory owes investors approximately $72 billion.

In December, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) arrived at a partial-default deal with bond insurers and creditors, reducing debt payments by almost 50% every year for the next five years. Creditors would take a 15% loss in exchange for stronger legal claims on the debt that is left. However, legislation still must be approved to finalize the arrangement.

Worries that creditors will sue has led to Puerto Rico asking the U.S. Congress to grant it bankruptcy protection so it can file for Chapter 9. One of the purposes of the latest bond payment plan is to delay these possible lawsuits while the territory buys more time to work out a deal with negotiators. And, while Democrats and the White House have asked Congress to pass legislation that would let the island restructure its debt, Republican lawmakers have thwarted those efforts. Now, many are expecting these creditor lawsuits in the coming days.
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Insider Trading News: SAC Capital Resolves Shareholder Lawsuit, Chinese Traders Settle SEC Charges, Another Court Turns Down Rajat Gupta’s Conviction Appeal SAC Capital Advisors Settles Insider Trading Case for $10M

Published on: December 30, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SAC Capital Advisors Settles Insider Trading Case for $10M
SAC Capital Advisors has consented to pay $10M to resolve a securities case brought by shareholders of pharmaceutical company Wyeth. The plaintiffs contend that they sustained losses because the hedge fund had been insider trading in the drugmaker’s stock.

The class action securities lawsuit was brought following the arrest a few years back of Mathew Martoma, an ex-SAC Capital portfolio manager. After he was convicted last year of insider trading for using confidential outcomes of a clinical trial involving an Alzheimer’s drug, Martoma was sentenced to nine years behind bars in 2014. According to prosecutors, Martoma’s trades allowed the hedge fund to make $275M.

Other settlements have already been reached over this matter, including a $1.8B settlement with US authorities as well as a guilty plea by SAC Capital. An SAC Capital unit also settled insider trading claims involving Wyeth and Elan Corp. stock—Elan and Wyeth had been developing the Alzheimer’s drug together—for $602M.

SEC Announces Settlement with Two Chinese Traders Over Insider Trading Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that business associates and cousins Yannan Liu and Zhichen Zhou, who are traders in Hong Kong and China, respectively, have consented to pay over $920,000 to resolve insider trading charges. The two of them will disgorge their entire ill-gotten gains as well as pay penalties.

According to the regulator, Liu and Zhou traded Chindex International and MedAssets Inc. stocks because of nonpublic information they received about their upcoming acquisitions by private equity firms. Liu had been a private equity associate at a company that was connected to both deals.

Securities Fraud News: Barclays to Pay $13.5M For Unsuitable Fraud Transactions, Appeals Court Upholds Asset Freeze of Wyly Brothers’ Relatives, Ex-NBA Player to Get Sentence for Ponzi Scam Conviction

Published on: December 29, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Barclays Capital Gets FINRA Fine for Unsuitable Mutual Fund Transactions

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said that Barclays Capital, Inc. (BARC) must pay over $10M in restitution plus interest to customers that were impacted by violations related to unsuitable mutual fund transactions. The self-regulatory organization said that the firm did not give certain customers the breakpoint discounts that applied. Aside from the restitution, Barclays must pay a $3.75M fine.

According to the SRO, from 1/10 through 6/15, the firm’s supervisory systems were not adequate enough to make sure that unsuitable transactions didn’t happen or that the firm’s duties related to mutual fund sales to retail brokerage clients were met. FINRA said that Barclays supervisory procedures wrongly defined a mutual fund switch as warranting three transactions within a specific period of frame. Because of this erroneous definition, the firm did not act on thousands of automated alerts warning of transactions that might be unsuitable, failed to include certain transactions for suitability review, and neglected to make sure that customesr got disclosure letters about transaction costs. Over 6,100 unsuitable mutual fund switches occurred, causing r about $8.63M in customer harm.

FINRA said that the Barclays did not give its supervisors enough guidance so that they could make sure that brokerage customers were engaging in mutual fund transactions that were suitable for their investment goals, holdings, and ability to tolerate risks. The SRO, which evaluated activities over a six-month period of time, said that 39% of mutual fund transactions were found unsuitable and customers suffered financial harm, including realized losses, of over $800K.

Also, during these five years, the firm’s supervisory system did not succeed in making sure that purchases were properly aggregated so eligible customers could get breakpoint discounts, including those involved in 100 Class A share mutual fund transactions.

By settling, Barclays is not denying or admitting to FINRA’s charges. It is, however, consenting to the entry of findings.
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Wells Fargo Sued by Commerz Bank in Mortgage-Backed Securities Case

Published on: December 29, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Commerzbank is suing Wells Fargo (WFC) for losses sustained on failed mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The German finance firm claims the California lending giant did not properly supervise MBS during the housing bubble, which Commerzbank argues, led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

Commerzbank alleges that Wells Fargo caused it over $100 million in losses because of Wells Fargo’s purported lack of action. The German firm invested over $290 million in MBSs and Wells Fargo was the trustee of 19 of the MBSs. A lot of the securities were backed by mortgages from subprime lender Option One.

The German bank believes that Wells Fargo and other trustees should have ensured that the loans backing the securities satisfied certain standards, notified investors when loans defaulted, and forced mortgage lenders to compensate investors for the poor quality loans. Instead, Wells Fargo did not do any of these actions.

Court Refuses to Overturn Criminal Conviction of Ex-UBS/Citigroup Trader

Published on: December 28, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In the U.K., a panel for the Court of Appeal refused to overturn the criminal conviction of ex-UBS (UBS) and Citigroup (C) trader. Tom Hayes is behind bars for conspiring to rig Libor. However, while his conviction will stand, the panel did lower his criminal sentence from 14 years to 11 years, citing his non-managerial role at the two banks and his diagnosis of mild Asperger’s.

Hayes is considered the main leader, spurring dozens of traders to manipulate the London interbank offered rate. However, his lawyers claim that Hayes did not hide his conduct from others at the bank and never considered his actions dishonest. Hayes said that his behavior was common in his industry.

When he voluntarily testified before prosecutors, Hayes admitted to manipulating rates. He also testified against a number of ex-friends and colleagues. Hayes also is facing criminal charges in the U.S.

Libor helps shape the borrowing costs for trillions of dollars in loans. Banks set rates, including Libor, by turning in rates at which they would be willing to lend each other money in different currencies and at different maturities.

US Continues Its Probe As Deutsche Bank Alleges $10B in Suspect Russia Trades

Published on: December 23, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

To date, Deutsche Bank AG (DB) says it has identified $10 billion in suspect trades that may not have been checked for money laundering. In the review, uncovered $6 billion of mirror trades involving its operations in Russia. According to a Russian central bank report, there are clients using rubles to purchase Russian shares and then selling them in London at the same time, usually for dollars. While mirror trades are legal in certain situations, they can be used to circumvent U.S. rules related to reporting money as it moves internationally. The German lender notified international authorities of its investigation a few months back.

According to Bloomberg, prosecutors in the United States have been investigating whether the bank’s dealings with the mirror trades violated U.S. rules regarding money laundering. Already, Russia’s central bank has fined Deutsche Bank after examining the latter’s trading in that country. Also, a source reportedly told Bloomberg that Russia’s regulator said that Deutsche Bank was the victim of an illegal scam and has since dealt with its related shortcomings.

The transactions under investigation include those involving trading in an account that was consistently involved in buy orders. In addition to the “mirror trades,” the investigation uncovered $4 billion of suspect trades that may have been conducted with another bank.

Fidelity Must Pay $1M Penalty For Failing to Detect Elder Financial Fraud

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

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has imposed an over $1 million penalty on Fidelity Investment’s Fidelity Brokerage Services (Fidelity) for failing to protect clients from a financial fraud committed by a woman pretending to be a broker for the firm. Lisa A. Lewis (Lewis) stole over $1 million from customers, most of whom were elderly investors. FINRA says that the firm’s retail brokerage arm should have been able to detect the scam, but Lewis was able to perpetrate her fraud because Fidelity’s supervisory controls were lax.

According to the self-regulatory organization (SRO), from August 2006 to May 2013, Lewis told customers from a firm she was fired from for purported check-kiting and improperly borrowing customer funds that she was with Fidelity, when she had no such connection to the firm. Lewis set up Fidelity accounts by using the personal data of nine people and placed the accounts in their name, as well as established joint accounts with them in which she named herself co-owner. Lewis then had all communication regarding the accounts sent to her. Lewis was able to set up over 50 individual and joint accounts at the firm. She proceeded to convert assets from these accounts for her own benefit.

Last year, Lewis pleaded guilty to wire fraud related to the elder financial fraud scam, and she is now behind bars where she is serving a 15-year prison term. She also has to pay over $2 million in restitution to the customers she harmed.
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