Securities Fraud

SEC Approves FINRA Arbitration Fees, SRO Proposes Rule For CARDS

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

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. proposal to up the pay for arbitrators. The rule change will increase how much it will cost to file securities arbitration claims, as well as processing fees, surcharge, and hearing session fees for bigger cases.

The changes would only impact claims involving over $250,000, with fees per hearing session going up by $100 to $300 depending on how big the claim. Filing fees would go up 10% to 25%, again depending on the claim’s size.

FINRA has not upped its fees since 1999. Under the proposed rule, arbitrators of these larger cases would get paid $300 for every hearing session, while the chairman would get another $125 a day. With the proposal, the self-regulatory organization would be bringing in $4 million to $5.6 million annually.

SEC News: Regulator Grants $30M Whistleblower Award and Charges Washington Investment Advisory Firm $600K for Undisclosed Principal Transaction, False Advertising

Published on: September 23, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Whistleblower to Get Over $30M Award in SEC Case

In its largest whistleblower award yet, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will pay a bounty of over $30 million to an informant. Seeing that a whistleblower may be entitled to 10-30% of the amount recovered under the Dodd-Frank program, if the quality, unique information the person provided led to an enforcement action resulting in sanctions of over $1 million, a huge sum was obviously recovered.

In this particular case, the whistleblower resides abroad. Andrew Ceresney, SEC Enforcement Division Director, said that the individual brought the agency information about a fraud that otherwise would have been very hard to detect. He stated that whistleblowers anywhere in the world should see this latest award as incentive to report possible violations involving U.S. securities fraud.

Man to Pay $40.4M for Texas Securities Fraud Involving Bitcoin Ponzi Scam

Published on: September 20, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Trendon T. Shavers, who is accused of operating a Texas Ponzi scam involving a Bitcoin scheme he operated from his residence must pay more than $40.4 million. The SEC filed a securities fraud case against him and his company Bitcoin Savings & Trust last year and sought disgorgement.

According to the regulator, Shavers, a Texas resident, raised more than 700,000 bitcoins while promising investors interest as high as 7% weekly. The allegedly fraudulent activities lasted from November 2011 through August 2012 when the Ponzi scam collapsed.

In a promo that he posted on online, Shavers solicited lenders, offering 1% interest daily for loans involving at least 50 bitcoins. He also published posts touting nearly zero risk, claiming that the business was doing exceptionally well. When his Texas securities scam failed, Shavers showed preference to longtime investors and friends when giving out redemptions.

FINRA Fines Minneapolis Broker-Dealer $1M for Inadequate Supervision of Penny Stocks

Published on: September 13, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has issued an enforcement action charging Feltl & Company for not notifying certain customers of the suitability and risks involving certain penny-stock transactions, as well as for failing to issue customer account statements showing each penny stock’s market value. The brokerage firm is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

FINRA claims that the firm failed to properly document transactions for securities that temporarily may not have fulfilled the definition of a penny stock and did not properly track penny-stock transactions involving securities that didn’t make a market.

Feltl made a market in nearly twenty penny stocks. The brokerage firm made $2.1 million from at least 2,450 customer transactions that were solicited in 15 penny stocks between 2008 and 2012. The SRO says it isn’t clear how much the firm made from selling penny stocks that it didn’t keep track of but that revenue from this would have been substantial.

SEC Charges Immigration Attorneys with Securities Fraud Involving EB-5 Immigration investor Program

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

The SEC is charging a Los Angeles-based immigration lawyer, his wife, and his law firm partner with securities fraud that targeted investors who wanted to gain U.S. residency through the EB-5 Immigration investor program. The program lets immigrants apply for U.S. residency if they invest in a project that helps create jobs for workers in this country.

According to the Commission, Justin, his spouse Rebecca Lee, and Thomas Kent raised close to $11.5 million from more than twenty investors that wanted to join the program. They told investors that they would qualify to join if they invested in an ethanol plant that was going to be constructed in Kansas.

The three of them are accused of taking the money and misappropriating it for other uses. Meantime, the plant was never constructed and no jobs were created. Yet Justin, Rebecca, and Thomas allegedly continued to deceive investors so that they kept believing that the construction project was in the works.

Securities Lawsuit Accuses Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and Other Banks of Manipulating ISDAfix

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

The Alaska Electrical Pension Fund is suing several banks for allegedly conspiring to manipulate ISDAfix, which is the benchmark for establishing the rates for interest rate derivatives and other financial instruments in the $710 trillion derivatives market. The pension fund contends that the banks worked together to set the benchmark at artificial levels so that they could manipulate investor payments in the derivative. The Alaska fund says that this impacted financial instruments valued at trillions of dollars.

The defendants are:

• Bank of America Corp. (BAC)

FINRA Investor Alert Warns About Scams Touting Ebola Cure and Other Viral Disease Stock Schemes

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

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has put out an investor alert warning against buying stocks in companies claiming to combat viral diseases. The self-regulatory organization says it knows of several possible schemes involving stock promotions employing tactics such as pump-and-dump scams to inflate share prices. The scammers will then sell their shares at a profit while leaving investors with shares that have lost their value.

Intensified news coverage of the recent Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak will likely have attracted the attention of stock scammers wanting to take advantage of people’s fears. To avoid falling victim to a viral disease stock scam, FINRA is offering several tips, including:

• Be wary of promotional materials, correspondence, and press releases from senders you don’t know. Watch out for communications that say little about the risks involved while only touting the positives. Getting a barrage of information about the same stock opportunities can also be a red flag.

Securities Lawsuit Against BlackRock Accuses Firm of Charging Excessive Sub-Advisor Fees

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

BlackRock Inc. (BLK) wants a judge to dismiss a securities lawsuit accusing the money manager of charging exorbitant fees and breaching its fiduciary duties. Lawyers for the firm argued that the claims have no merit in the U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey.

The investor plaintiffs, including a Florida investment adviser who won the lottery, contend that BlackRock’s subsidiaries collected excessive fees for services provided to Equity Dividend Fund (MDDVX), worth almost $30 billion, and their Global Allocation Fund, (MDLOX), worth close to $59 billion. They say that they lost millions of dollars because of excessive fees.

However, reports InvestmentNews, according to one of the lawyers representing BlackRock, the complaint does not properly acknowledge the fund’s size or allege facts adequate enough to plausibly demonstrate that the fees are unreasonable, especially considering the services that were provided.

Former MIT Professor and His Son Plead Guilty to $140M Hedge Fund Fraud

Published on: August 14, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Gabriel Bitran, an ex- Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and his son Marco Bitran have pled guilty to securities fraud charges accusing them of bilking investors of $140 million. Through their company, GMP Capital Management, the father and son placed investor money in hedge funds linked to Bernard Madoff, who ran the Ponzi scam that defrauded clients of billions of dollars.

According to prosecutors, from 2005 to 2011 Bitran and Marco collected $500 million from investors by promising to invest their funds using an original complex mathematical trading model. The money was supposed to go into exchange-traded funds and other securities but were instead placed in hedge funds.

When the financial crisis of 2008 happened, a number of the hedge funds got into trouble. Some of their investors lost up to 75% of their principal.

SEC Tells J.S. Oliver Capital to Pay $15M for Alleged Cherry-Picking Scam

Published on: August 11, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Chief Administrative law judge Brenda Murray has fined J.S. Oliver Capital Management $15 million for securities violations and breach of fiduciary duty related to an alleged cherry-picking scam that bilked clients of approximately $10.9 million. The registered investment adviser must also pay $1.4 million in disgorgement.

According to the regulator, the RIA awarded profitable trades to hedge funds associated with the firm, while other clients, including a charitable foundation and a widow, were given the less profitable trades that resulted in major losses. These hedge funds that benefited were those in which J.S. Oliver founder Ian Oliver Mausner was an investor. Mausner is also accused of using soft-dollar commissions inappropriately.

Mausner continues to deny the SEC charges. He claims that the profitable trades were disproportionately allocated because of market volatility and that clients’ investment goals played a part.