REITs

Texas Hedge Fund Manager Accuses United Development Funding IV of Ponzi Scam

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

J. Kyle Bass, the hedge fund manager who runs the Dallas-based Hayman Capital, has set up a website accusing Texas-based REIT United Development Funding IV of running a Ponzi-like real estate scam. On the site, Bass published a letter to readers, claiming that his firm had conducted research and found that the nontraded real estate investment trust displayed characteristics in line with a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Bass contends that UDF used money from a public affiliate to rescue its first fund. According to Business Insider, Bass also claims that UDF management has been distorting its poor track record and the financial state of its affiliates going as far back as the financial crisis. He alleges that UDF has been taking advantage of retail investors and using UDF- controlled entities and real estate backed loans to conceal the fact that new investors money is b used to pay existing investors.
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Investors Files Texas Securities Case Alleging Violations by United Development Funding IV

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

Investors have filed a class action securities case claiming that the Texas nontraded real estate investment trust United Development Funding IV (NASDAQ:UDF) and certain of its officers violated federal securities laws. The complaint come a month after the Harvest Exchange website published a report accusing the Company of running a Ponzi-like scam. The UDF umbrella is accused of raising capital to bail out its earlier vintage entities.

On December 10, 2015, the day that the report went out, UDF’s shares dropped significantly. The Company then put out a press release disclosing that its UDF IV and UDF III have been cooperating for nearly two years with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been conducting a non-public probe since early 2014. Following that announcement, Company shares fell even further, negatively impacting investors.

The Texas securities case accuses the defendants of, from June 4 – December 10, 2015, failing to disclose that:

· New UDF companies gave older UDF companies substantial liquidity, letting them pay earlier investors.
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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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Securities Fraud News: Texas REIT’s Share Price Drops Following Ponzi Allegations, Morgan Stanley, Ex-Broker Are Found Jointly Liable in $1M Elder Fraud Case, and Brokerage Firm Resolves Variable Annuities Claims for $475K

Published on: December 12, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

United Development Funding IV Shares Fall After Allegations of Texas Ponzi Scheme
United Development Funding IV (“UDF IV”), a Texas-based real estate investment trust (“REIT”), saw its share price drop after Harvest Exchange published a post that said the REIT had been run like a Ponzi scheme for years. United Development was a nontraded REIT that became traded when it listed on Nasdaq last year under the symbol “UDF”.

In the report on the Harvest site, the anonymous author said that the UDF umbrella had traits indicative of a Ponzi scam, such as, it uses new capital to pay distributions to current investors and UDF companies and gives substantial liquidity to earlier UDF companies to pay earlier investors. The article said that once the funding of retail capital to the most current UDF stops, the earlier UDF companies do not seem able to stand on their own. This purportedly indicates that the structure will likely fail and investors will be the ones sustaining losses.

After the report by the online professional network of investors, UDF IV saw its share price plunge from $17.53 to $10.10. It later dropped further to $8.55/share.

Over $1M Awarded in Senior Financial Fraud Case Against Morgan Stanley and a Former Financial Adviser
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration panel has awarded 92-year-old Genevieve Lenehan (“Mrs. Lenehan”) over $1M in her claim against Morgan Stanley (MS) and former Morgan Stanley advisor Justin Amaral (“Amaral”). Mrs. Lenehan accused Amaral of churning and reverse churning her account. Amaral also advised Mrs. Lenehan’s husband until his death five years ago.
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RCAP Settles Proxy Fraud Allegations With Massachusetts for $3M, Shuts Down Wholesaling REIT Brokerage Division

Published on: December 2, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

RCS Capital Corp. is closing its wholesaling brokerage unit following allegations of fraud and a drop in its sales of nontraded real estate investment trusts. InvestmentNews reports that according to a source, about 150 employees at Realty Capital Securities are expected to be laid off, as are another 50 employees who work elsewhere in the company.

The company also announced that it has settled the proxy fraud allegations made against it by Massachusetts’ securities division and it will pay $3 million. The state’s Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin accused the broker-dealer of fraudulently collecting proxy votes to back real estate deals that were sponsored by AR Capital, which is owned by former real estate magnate Nicholas Schorsch. He still is a principal shareholder of RCAP stock. It was Realty Capital Securities that raised hundreds of millions of dollars in equity each month for retail investors who bought Schorsch REITs just a few years ago.
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Massachusetts Regulator Expands Proxy Vote Fraud Probe of Realty Capital Securities to Include Independent Broker-Dealers and Advisers that Sold Alternative Investments

Published on: November 17, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Massachusetts securities division is widening its probe into alleged proxy voting fraud at Realty Capital Securities to include independent broker-dealers and advisers that sold RCS alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts. According to Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s complaint against RCS, firm employees communicated with other brokerage firm agents and talked about how to procure proxy votes. Massachusetts securities division spokesperson Brian McNiff said that these employees would send these agents a broker-dealer authority letter without verifying if they “had authority to vote client shares.”

Galvin, in his complaint, accused RCS of fraudulently gathering proxy votes to support real estate deals backed by AR Capital. He said RCS agents pretended to be shareholders and cast bogus votes for AR Capital-sponsored brokers. AR Capital is owned by Nicholas Schorsch and William Kahane. Schorsch is a principal shareholder in RCAS Capital, also known as RCAP, which is RCS’s parent company.

The state regulator has been probing Schorsch-related companies for the past year. In 2014, Galvin began a probe into RCS after American Realty Capital Property, which Schorsch controlled at the time, disclosed that it had purposely not corrected a $23 million accounting mistake.

This week, and in the wake of the charges filed by Massachusetts against RCS Capital, Fidelity Clearing & Custody and Charles Schwab and Corp. (SCHW) made the decision to step selling AR Capital products. Alternative investment products by AR Capital are marketed to advisers via Realty Capital Securities. Also, Cetera Financial Group said it would stop the sales of AR Capital-branded alternative investments, including REITs. The retail brokerage network announced the cessation a day after Galvin charged RCS with fraud.

Securities Headlines: Halcyon Cabot Partners is Expelled from Industry by FINRA, Blackstone Settles Disclosure Failure Charges for Nearly $39M, SEC Approves Proposal to Improve Transparency for OTC Equity Securities

Published on: October 8, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Expels Halcyon Cabot, Bars Chief Executives
Halcyon Cabot Partners, Ltd. has been expelled by FINRA. The regulator also has barred its CEO Michael Morris and CCO Ronald Heineman from the securities industry. The reasons for the expulsion and bars include fraud, abusive sales practices, the concealment of private placement fee kickbacks, and other purported acts.

According to the self-regulatory organization, Halcyon, the two men, and previously barred former registered rep. Craig Josephberg hid the discount the issuer gave to a venture capital firm when it bought a private placement in a company. The scam was executed using a fake placement fee deal after the venture capital firm agreed to buy all the offerings. However, FINRA said, because there already was a buyer, Halcyon didn’t conduct any work and gave back nearly all of its $1.75M fee to the investor via bogus consulting agreements. As a result, the company was able to hide that its shares were sold at a reduced rate.

FINRA contends that Halcyon did not properly supervise Josephberg, who was making unauthorized trades and churning retail accounts. The regulator is accusing Morris of falsifying Halcyon’s records to hide the securities sales that Josephberg made in states where he wasn’t registered, including Texas.

Blackstone Group to Pay Almost $39M Over Disclosure Failures
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that three private equity fund advisers that belong to The Blackstone Group have consented to pay close to $39 million to resolve charges that they did not fully inform investors about the benefits they received from discounts on legal fees and accelerated monitoring fees. While Blackstone is settling and has consented to the entry of the regulator’s order stating that it breached its fiduciary duty, failed to put into place policies and procedures that were reasonably designed, and failed to correctly disclose information to investors of the funds, it is not denying or admitting to allegations.

The three fund advisers are:

• Blackstone Management Partners
• Blackstone Management Partners IV
• Blackstone Management Partners II

LPL to Pay $3.2M Over Nontraded REIT and ETF Sales

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

LPL Financial (LPLA) has agreed to pay 3.2 million fine to settle penalties related to its sale of nontraded real estate investment trusts and leveraged exchange-traded funds. The settlements were reached with the Non-Traded REIT Task Force of the North American Securities Administrators Association and regulators in Massachusetts and Delaware. The firm sold the REITs at issue for six years beginning in 2008.

Under the agreement, LPL will pay $1.425 million in civil penalties for its purported failures to put into place a supervisory system that was adequate enough to handle its nontraded REIT sales and enforce written procedures related illiquid trust sales. The money will be divvied up between the District of Columbia, 48 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. By settling with NASAA, LPL is not denying or admitting wrongdoing.

Also, the Delaware Attorney General and the Massachusetts Attorney General have arrived at their own settlements with LPL’s Boston arm. The firm consented to pay $1.8 million for putting about 200 clients from Massachusetts in high-risk leveraged ETFs. The broker-dealer and Massachusetts had come to an earlier settlement about nontraded REIT sales two years ago.
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Royal Alliance Must Pay $1.4M To Retirees for Non-traded REIT, Variable Annuities Sales

Published on: July 21, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. panel says that AIG Advisor Group (AIG) subsidiary Royal Alliance Associates Inc. must pay $1.4 million to three retirees who claim that the brokerage firm was negligent when supervising the sales of variable annuities and nontraded real estate investment trusts.

The investors, who were former AT & T Inc. employees, claim that ex-broker Kathleen Tarr recommended that they take a lump-sum buyout from the communications company instead of a lifetime annuity. The money was then put into non-traded REIT company Inland Real Estate, as well as different variable annuities.

Tarr’s BrokerCheck record shows that she has been named in about forty customer disputes and complaints. She was let go from Royal Alliance in 2010.

The claimants, who are low-wealth, low-income seniors, believe that they should not have been encouraged to take a lump sum and place their funds into non-traded REITs and variable annuities involving an IRA. Even though they did not sustain out-of-pocket losses from the investment recommendations, the retirees purportedly lost out on earnings they would have made if only they had invested their money more reasonably or opted for the lifetime annuity. With the latter, an investor would have given over a lump sum figure in return for a guaranteed payout for the duration of his/her life.
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Securities Class Action Says ARCP Made Over $900M From Acquisition Binge

Published on: April 20, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to the amended complaint of an investor class action securities case, American Realty Capital Properties Inc. made over $900 million in commissions, fees and payments issued to company insiders after it started an acquisition binge to raise its share price and capital. The non-traded real estate investment trust purportedly started the buying frenzy, which lasted for three years, after completing its $69.8M IPO in 2011 and discovering that its share price was wallowing under the initial public offering price. The lead plaintiff in the case is the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, which is a retirement and annuities plan behemoth.

The securities lawsuit contends that because the lower than desired price was holding up ARCP’s ability to raise a significant amount of capital, the acquisition strategy allegedly involved artificially raising adjusted operation funds—a key metric for investors when evaluating an REIT’s performance. The plaintiffs believe that senior insiders at ARCP knew that the tactic was the only way to make the hefty fees. Over $917 million in payments went straight to ARCP insiders and the company’s affiliates.

Because of the acquisition binge, ARCP went from owning 63 properties and having $13 million in assets to owning over 4,400 properties and $21.3 billion in assets. The complaints claims that indirect and direct payments to ARCP insiders purportedly included $186.6 million subordinated distribution fees, and $333 million in fees and commissions. Some of the fees were allegedly triggered by ARCP’s buying of non-traded REITs American Realty Capital Trust IV Inc. and American Realty Capital Trust II, both defendants in the case. Other payments included $21.6 million for sales purportedly made to ARCP for equipment, fixtures, and furniture, $63.4 million for strategic advisory services, and $17.7 million for financing coordinating fees.