Puerto Rico Bond Funds

Former UBS Puerto Rico Employees Brought $25M Lawsuit Against the Firm

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

Over the last two years, more than 1,000 investors have sued UBS Puerto Rico (UBS-PR) in FINRA arbitration or other forums over mounting losses from the collapse of the Puerto Rico bond market. However, investors are not the only ones suing UBS-PR over its sale of risky bonds. Siblings Jorge and Teresa Bravo have sued UBS for $10 million in FINRA arbitration along with UBS-PR customers.

The Bravos, both ex-senior VPs at the brokerage firm, said management fooled not just customers but also UBS employees. They said they were coerced and threatened into selling Puerto Rico close-end bond funds and they were mistreated before being forced out.

Along with the Bravos, seven former UBS Puerto Rico employees have filed claims against UBS-PR seeking $25 million from their former employer. That group of former UBS-PR brokers claim UBS management made misleading statements to them, as well as customers, about the closed-end mutual funds. The brokers also said management pressured brokers at the firm to sell these Puerto Rico securities. News of the seven former brokers’ lawsuit broke last year around the time that Reuters disclosed the existence of a UBS letter noting that the collateral value of closed-end funds would be reduced to zero—an indication of their riskiness.

At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP, our Puerto Rico bond fraud lawyers have been working with investors to recoup their money. Too many investors lost much of the money they invested with UBS-PR and other brokerage firms on the island when these securities began to fail three years ago. Our securities lawyers on the island and the U.S. mainland are representing clients who have FINRA arbitration claims.

Hedge Funds Sue Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank Over Assets

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

Problems continue to plague Puerto Rico as its financial situation continues to deteriorate. Just recently, as things have worsened for the U.S. territory, a number of hedge funds have asked the United States District Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico to freeze the assets of the Commonwealth’s Government Development Bank (“GDB”). The hedge funds, who are large owners of Puerto Rican debt, are accusing the bank of insolvency and spending its remaining money to help support other sectors of the island’s beleaguered government.

The plaintiffs in the case include Claren Road Asset Management and Brigade Capital Management. The hedge funds reportedly hold about $3.75 billion of the bank’s debt.

In their lawsuit, the hedge funds said that the GDB has not provided the financial data that creditors have requested. They want the Court to prohibit additional cash transfers except for those that are necessary. The hedge funds do not want public entities, municipalities, and other depositors to be able to take their money out.

The plaintiffs expressed concern that should the GDB run out of funds, a lot of essential services may have to stop and creditors would sustain significant losses. The GDB has a debt payment due on May 1 of about $422 million. In response to the hedge funds’ case, GDB President Melba Acosta-Febo claimed that the accusations made in the complaint are “erroneous” and allegations that the GDB knowingly kept back financial information in order to preference deposits over bondholders are “wholly false.”

The hedge funds believe that GDB kept giving loans even while knowing these loans would likely not be repaid.

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.

UBS Group Must Pay Investor $1.45M For Puerto Rico Bonds

Published on: February 22, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Pursuant to a recent arbitration ruling, UBS Group AG (UBS) must pay $1.45 million to Christel Marie Bengoa Lopez for losses she sustained in Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds. According to her arbitration claim, filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), Bengoa Lopez invested a $5 million gift from her father after he sold his business.

Her broker at UBS purportedly touted the Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds as conservative, safe investments. She claims that he recommended that she use a credit line issued by UBS that would utilize her investments as collateral to purchase an apartment. However, when the closed-end bond funds became worth less than the balance of the loan, the brokerage firm insisted that it be paid back in full.

Commenting on the arbitrator’s ruling, UBS noted that it disagreed with the case outcome.

Unfortunately, numerous investors have lost substantial amounts of money from investing in Puerto Rico funds, many of which were sold by UBS. These funds were concentrated in the U.S. territory’s debt. When some funds lost half or more for their value in 2013, investors realized that the Puerto Rico investments were not as safe as represented. In fact, some investors lost everything.

Brokers from UBS, Banco Santander (SAN), Banco Popular, and other brokerage firms on the island are accused of steering investors toward Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds and individual Puerto Rico bonds even though Puerto Rico debt was not the best investment match for investors in terms of the latter’s goals and the degree of risk their portfolios could handle. Since 2013, Puerto Rico has been struggling to pay back $70 billion in debt-held not just by hedge funds and other institutional creditors but also by middle class Puerto Ricans, who hold about 30%, reports CNN, and other average Americans, who hold about 15%.
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Bondholder Group with $17.3B in Puerto Rico Debt Proposes Debt Restructuring Plan

Published on: February 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA) has submitted a plan to restructure the financially beleaguered island’s debt. COFINA, which is comprised of investors who possess debt backed by sales-tax revenues, has issued $17.3 billion in Puerto Rico debt-$7.5 billion in senior debt and $9.7 billion in second lien debt.

COFINA’s proposal is in response to another plan submitted by the island’s development bank earlier this month. With its proposed plan, COFINA is asking Puerto Rico to suspend repayments to members of the bondholder group until 2018, when payments would steadily grow to at least $600 million by 2021.

In exchange for the delayed payment, the bondholders are asking for the preservation of the notes’ tax-backed guarantee. Already, COFINA’s payments due this fiscal year have been put aside with its bond trustee.

The bondholder’s group includes creditors such as Whitebox Advisors, Metropolitan Life Insurance and Golden Tree Asset Management. The bondholder group believes that delaying repayments for two years should give the island time to recover financially.

Morgan Stanley Pays Widow Over $95K for Puerto Rico Securities Losses

Published on: January 30, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration Panel has ordered brokerage firm Morgan Stanley to pay Morrisa Schiffman (Schiffman) $95,632 for the losses she sustained from investing in Puerto Rico securities. Schiffman, who is a widow from New Jersey, had been using the income from the Puerto Rico investments to supplement her retirement. She accused the firm of making unsuitable recommendations and engaging in negligent supervision and disclose failures.

Bloomberg reports this is one of the first cases involving an investor in the U.S mainland seeking financial recovery related to the Commonwealth’s debt. More than 1,300 FINRA arbitration cases have already been filed in Puerto Rico for residents of the island who sustained heavy losses when Puerto Rico bonds began their fall in 2013.

Puerto Rico bonds were a big draw for investors in and out of Puerto Rico for a number of years because the securities are tax-exempt in the U.S. However, since these bonds dramatically declined in value nearly three years ago, investors have come forward to file arbitration claims against brokerage firms who recommended the bonds to them.

Our securities firm’s analysis has shown that, despite their tax advantages, most Puerto Rico bonds were not suitable for many customers’ investment goals or their portfolios. Brokers should have steered customers away from the Puerto Rico securities instead of toward them. Because of their negligence, there are investors who have lost all of their money in these bonds.

Firms named in recent Puerto Rico muni bond fraud cases include UBS Financial Services Incorporated of Puerto Rico (UBS), Banco Santander, Banco Popular, Stifel Nicolaus & Co. (SF), Bank of America’s (BA) Merrill Lynch, and others.

Puerto Rico owes $70 billion in debt. The Commonwealth recently defaulted on $37 million of payments that were due to certain creditors so that it could pay more of the general obligation debt that the island owes.

Insurers Ambac Assurance Corporation (AMBAC), Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC), and Assured Guaranty Corp. (Assured) are now suing the territory over the default, for which they’ve had to pay millions of dollars on claims.
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FGIC Sues Puerto Rico Over Bond Payment Default

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

A third bond insurer is now suing Puerto Rico over the way its government officials diverted tax money to fulfill certain bond payments that were due while defaulting on other payments. The latest plaintiff is Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC). Its complaint has been consolidated with a lawsuit brought by Ambac Assurance Corporation (Ambac) and Assured Guaranty Corp. (Assured) that makes similar allegations.

FGIC contends that government officials violated the U.S. Constitution when they diverted over $164 million to pay off some of the Commonwealth’s general obligation debt. As a result of the diversion, Puerto Rico defaulted on $37 million in interest on bonds and FGIC says that because of this it had to pay over $6 million in claims.

The fund diversion lets the territory avoid default on general obligation bonds, which, under its own Constitution, are the priority in terms of making payments. However, according to the three insurance companies, the island expects to make about $9 billion in the fiscal year that ends in June and this goes beyond its debt-service costs. The insurance companies do not believe that money had to be redirected away from the government agencies.

Puerto Rico owes over $70 billion in debt. Recently, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pressed Congress to pass legislation to help the beleaguered territory. Lew visited the island on Wednesday.
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Ambac Assurance and Assured Guaranty Sue Puerto Rico For Defaulting on Bond Payment

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

Municipal bond insurance companies Ambac Assurance Corp. (Ambac) and Assured Guaranty Corp. (Assured) are suing Puerto Rico in the wake of its failure to make $37 million in bond payments that were due on January 1. The U.S territory defaulted on paying certain bonds in order to have the funds to repay $355 million owed to holders of Puerto Rico general obligation debts. In the process, it diverted $163 million from revenue streams that should have gone to the island’s government agencies.

Ambac and Assured insure approximately $1.1 billion and almost $1.5 billion, respectively, of the debt still owed to government agencies. The insurance companies contend that the island’s decision to use tax money, which should have gone toward payments on the bonds that they insure, to pay the other bond obligations due is unconstitutional. Assured also said that this legally interferes with the insurer’s contractual rights and violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Fourth Amendments, as well as Article I, Section 10.

Because of the default, the two insurance companies are collectively compelled to pay $10.7 million on insurance policies. Their lawsuit seeks to stop Puerto Rico from completing the payment clawbacks.

According to the two insurers, clawback authority is only applicable when no other funds are available to pay debt. They say that the island has yet to prove this to be true.
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Shareholder Files Against REIT Over $41M Puerto Rico Hotel Loan Write-Down

Published on: January 5, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A shareholder of Resource Capital Corp. is suing the real estate investment trust (REIT) because of the way it dealt with a Puerto Rico hotel loan portfolio and a $41 million write-down that resulted last year. Plaintiff Josh Reaves says that the REIT’s directors knew there was bleak information about the deteriorating financial state of the U.S. territory way before a press release went out in August revealing there had been a $41 million write-down on a hotel mezzanine loan. The announcement caused the REIT’s stock to drop over 12% ,while erasing $55 million in market capitalization.

Reaves says that Resource Capital should have known as early as February 2014, when Puerto Rico debt was downgraded to “junk” status, that investments on the island were at risk. Instead, he contends, the REIT did not disclose the degree to which its loan portfolio was exposed to the Puerto Rican economy, misrepresented the degree of risk the portfolio could handle, did not abide by disclosure practices as they pertain to loan impairment, did not accurately represent the portfolio’s value, and failed to have the internal controls needed to stop the risks from becoming too precarious.

In August 2015, when submitting its filing to the SEC, Resource Capital wrote that the loan’s outstanding balance was $38.1 million and moved $3 million of accrued interest to the negative column from the positive column. Because of the $41 million write-down, $31 million was lost over that quarter.

Reaves’ case is a derivatives lawsuit. He is filing it on the company’s behalf. This means that Resource is a nominal defendant. The defendants named included the REIT’s CFO David Bryant, CEO Jonathan Cohen, Chairperson Steven Kessler, and a number of its board members.
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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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