Morgan Stanley

Stockbroker Fraud: Morgan Stanley Sues Convicted Ex-Broker, Former-Wells Fargo Broker Pleads Guilty, And Ex-John Thomas Financial Broker Evades Customer Complaints

Published on: May 29, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley Files Lawsuit Against Ex-Broker Convicted in Kickback Scam

Morgan Stanley (MS) is suing ex-broker Darin DeMizio for legal fees. DeMizio was convicted over his involvement in a kickback scheme. Now, the financial firm wants him to pay back legal expenses because it says that he purposely defrauded the broker-dealer and hid the fraud while working there.

DeMizio was convicted five years ago for his scheme to pay kickbacks of $1.7 million to his brother and dad. He was sentenced to 38 months behind bars and ordered to pay Morgan Stanley $1.2 million in restitution.

Morgan Stanley Gets $5M Fine for Supervisory Failures Involving 83 IPO Shares Sales

Published on: May 6, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MS) will pay a $5 million fine for supervisory failures involving its advisors soliciting shares in 83 IPOs to retail investors. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that the firm lacked the proper training and procedures to make sure that salespersons knew the difference between “conditional offers” and “indications of interest.”

By settling, Morgan Stanley is not denying or admitting to the supervisory failures securities charges. It is, however, consenting to the entry of findings by FINRA.

FINRA believes these issues are related to Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of Smith Barney from Citigroup (C) a couple of years ago. In addition to inheriting more high net worth clients, the SRO contends that Morgan Stanley ended up with financial advisers who might not have gotten the needed training.

PNC Bank Sues Morgan Stanley & Ex-Trust Adviser For “Surreptitious Conspiracy”

Published on: April 3, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, PNC Bank (PNC) is suing Emily Daly, one of its ex-trust advisers, and her employer Morgan Stanley (MS). According to InvestmentNews, The bank contends that Daly allegedly stole trade secrets, solicited its clients, and violated her employment agreement when she switched firms. Meantime, Morgan Stanley is accused of helping her bring over the confidential data about clients.

Banks don’t like it when advisers take their customers with them when they go to another firm and nonsolicitation agreements can be violated as a result. Also, under PNC’s employment contract, employees are not allowed to take data that isn’t general industry knowledge or from a public source when they leave a firm. The bank contends that Daly helped transfer over $250 million in client assets to Morgan Stanley, which allowed the firm to make fees of about $ 1 million.

Daly even purportedly used her cell phone to take pictures of her computer screen when internal measures made it impossible to download lists of clients. Boxes of client data that were in Daly’s office are said to have gone missing.

Former Morgan Stanley Broker and Two Others Allegedly Ran $5.6M Insider Trading Scam, Swallowed The Information

Published on: March 19, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In an alleged insider trading scam that could have been ripped out of the plot of a movie, prosecutors are accusing three men of engaging in methods of spycraft, including eating the evidence, as they ran an insider trading racket that netted about $5.6 million. The information they used was purportedly obtained from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, which is the premier mergers-and-acquisitions law practice in New York. The firm is known for its work involving mergers and acquisitions and private equity.

Prosecutors say that Steven Metro, a managing clerk at the law firm, used his employer’s computer system to gather information about deals and other corporate developments involving clients. He then shared the information, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, included data about Tyco International Ltd.’s intentions to purchase Brink’s Home Security Holdings Inc., as well as the Office Dept. Inc. Office Max Inc. merger, with an unnamed mortgage broker during coffee shop and bar meetings. That person then allegedly gave the info to broker Vladimir Eydelman, who until recently, was with Morgan Stanley (MS) (and before that (Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY)) Edylman, 42, then traded on the data.

Metro and Eydelman were arrested this week and then released on $1 million bond. They face numerous criminal charges, including securities fraud. Meantime, the unnamed mortgage broker is working with prosecutors and is expected to consent to a plea deal.

Morgan Stanley to Pay $275M to SEC to Settle Subprime MBS Investigation

Published on: February 25, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley (MS) has agreed to pay $275 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve the regulator’s investigation into the firm’s sale of subprime mortgage-backed securities seven years ago. The settlement reached is an “agreement in principal” and, according to the firm in its annual filing this week, it does not have to admit wrongdoing. However, the accord still needs SEC approval to become final.

The regulator had been probing the bank’s roles as an underwriter and sponsor of subprime mortgage-backed bonds that sustained losses after it was issued in 2007. Other firms that have reached similar agreements with the SEC include Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS).

Morgan Stanley is still facing litigation from government entities and private parties over derivatives and mortgage bonds that were set up leading up to the mortgage crisis. Last year, it’s litigation expenses reached $1.95 billion, which is a significant increase from $513 million in 2012.

Morgan Stanley to Pay $1.25B in Mortgage-Backed Securities Lawsuit by FHFA

Published on: February 4, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley (MS) will pay $1.25 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency to resolve the latter’s securities fraud lawsuit accusing the firm of selling mortgage bonds to Freddie Mac (FMCC) and Fannie Mae without apprising them of the risks. A lot of the loan involved in this MBS lawsuit against Morgan Stanley came from subprime lenders, such as IndyMac and New Century. The loans were packaged into bonds.

The brokerage firm, which sold $10.58 billion in mortgage-backed securities that were issued between September 2005 and September 2007, is the eighth financial firm to settle with FHFA over the more than $200 billion in securities that came with offering materials that purportedly misled the two government-backed lenders about the quality of the loans behind their investments. FHFA sued 18 financial institutions asking for unspecified damages in 2011.

To date, the government agency has collected about $9.1 billion. Recent settlers include Deutsche Bank AG (DB), which is paying $1.93 billion and JP Morgan Chase (JPM), which settled for $4 billion. Among those that have yet to settle with FHFA is Bank of America Corp. (BAC), which is being sued, along with two of its firms—Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) and Countrywide Financial Corp.—for over more than $57.4 billion in securities. FHFA wants at least $6 billion from them.

AIG Settles Ex-Executive’s $274M Lawsuit Over Alleged Failure to Pay Him During 2008 Economic Crisis

Published on: November 8, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

American Insurance Group and one of its ex-executives, Kevin Fitzpatrick, have reached a settlement deal over his $274 million lawsuit against the insurer. Fitzpatrick, the former president of the AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. unit, claims that his then-employer would not pay him during the 2008 economic crisis. The insurer’s refusal to pay occurred not long after the US government said yes to the first part of what would turn into a $182 billion bailout.

Fitzpatrick, who worked for American Insurance Group for 22 years, said that the company breached agreements it had with him and entities under his control. He claims the agreements entitled him to a share of profits made on the insurer’s real estate investments but that on October 2008 they stopped paying him and others who were entitled to profit distributions. Fitzpatrick then quit.

Fitzpatrick sued in 2009, claiming that the company owed him $274 million and that he wanted interest and punitive damages, which is right around the time that the insurer was trying to get past public disapproval over $165 million in bonuses that were paid to employees in the AIG Financial Products unit. That is the group that handled the complex financial instruments that led to its huge losses.

AIG denied wrongdoing and said that Fitzpatrick was paid what he was owed. The insurer contended that Fitzpatrick actually was fired and that he stole data that was confidential and belonged to the company.

In other AIG-related news, a district court judge just threw out a shareholder lawsuit accusing Bank of America (BAC) of not telling them that the insurer was planning to sue the bank with a $10 billion fraud lawsuit. AIG accused Bank of America of misrepresenting the quality of more than $28 million of MBSs that AIG bought from the latter and its Countrywide and Merrill Lynch (MER) units.

Also, there are reports that AIG might file mortgage-backed securities case against Morgan Stanley (MS) over $3.7 billion of MBS.

Morgan Stanley Says AIG May Sue Over Mortgage-Linked Investments, Bloomberg, November 4, 2013

Bank of America wins dismissal of lawsuit on AIG disclosures, Reuters, November 4, 2013

AIG Sued by Its Own Executive as Tragedy Turns to Farce, CBS, December 10, 2009

Judge Dismisses Shareholder Lawsuit Suing Bank of America For Allegedly Concealing AIG Fraud Case

Published on: November 6, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A judge has thrown out a securities lawsuit by shareholders accusing Bank of America Corp. (BAC) of concealing that insurer AIG (AIG) intended to file a $10 billion fraud case against it. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said that BofA and four of its officers were not obligated to reveal in advance that the lawsuit was pending or that it was a large one.

AIG filed its securities fraud lawsuit against Bank of America in 2011. The insurer claimed that the bank misrepresented the quality of over $28 billion of mortgage-backed securities it purchased not just from the bank but also from its Merrill Lynch (MER) and Countrywide units. On the day that the complaint was filed, shares of Bank of America dropped 20.3% and Standard & Poor’s revoked the tripe-A credit rating it had issued.

The shareholder plaintiffs claim that the bank’s officers, including Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, knew about the MBS fraud case six months before the lawsuit was submitted and they should have given them advance warning.

Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Call A Broker Recruiting Truce

Published on: October 26, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS), which own the largest brokerage firms in the world, are declaring a cease-fire when it comes to using big bonuses to keep their own brokers and lure each other’s brokers away. Bank of America Corp. owns Merrill Lynch (MER).

After payments tied to Bank of America’s purchase of Merill Lynch expire in approximately two years, new retention bonuses will no longer be offered to the latter’s lead performers. Also, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive James Gorman has said that with brokers seeking to switch firms less often, compensation costs could fall.

A decline in recruiting could push up broker-dealer profits, which has been held back because of the fight between firms for the leading advisers. Some brokers have even been offered multiple times their yearly salary to move and bring their client roster with them.

NCUA Accuses Morgan Stanley Of $556M Mortgage-Backed Securities Fraud

Published on: September 2, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The National Credit Union Administration is suing Morgan Stanley (MS) for mortgage-backed securities fraud. In its MBS lawsuit, the NCUA said that it misrepresented $556 million of the securities that it sold to two credit unions, Western Corporate Federal Credit Union and U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, which are now no longer in operation.

Morgan Stanley is just one of several banks, including Barclays (BCS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to get hit by securities cases accusing them of strapping such unions with millions of dollars in beleaguered loans. The bank and its affiliates are being blamed for purportedly making misleading statements about the risks involved, as well as about the underwriting standards for originating home loan securities that sold between 2006 and 2007.

According to the regulatory agency’s MBS lawsuit, the originators were systematic about moving away from the underwriting guidelines stated in the offering documents and that the securities were headed toward failure from “inception.” Because of this, contends the complaint, WesCorp and US Central suffered losses in the million dollars as the housing market collapsed and they eventually became insolvent. They both were put into conservatorship and later liquidated.