Uncategorized

FINRA Lawyers Helping Pursue O&G Losses Involving David Lerner

Published on: October 17, 2022 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

How Energy 11 Investors Can Pursue Oil and Gas Investment Losses From David Lerner & Associates

Broker-Dealer Owes $45M in Unpaid Distributions And Has Been The Subject of FINRA Arbitration Claims

Once again, David Lerner & Associates has come under scrutiny over proprietary products that it sold exclusively to its customers. In the firm’s yearly report, the broker-dealer admitted that it owes $45M in unpaid distributions to those who invested in Energy 11, LP.

Know When You Need to Hire an Investment Loss Lawyer

Published on: October 17, 2022 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

What Is The Investment Grade Fund I and Why Are Investor Losses A Concern?

Broker-Dealer Negligence Allegations Surface Following Private Placement Losses for Investors. If you are an investor whose broker recommended that you purchase shares in IGF Investment Grade Fund I, LP, you may be struggling with whether you need to hire an Investment Loss Lawyer. This real estate core-plus fund, run by IGF Partners, was marketed and sold by brokerage firms all over the United States.

IGF Fund I investors were told that they could expect 6% yearly returns that were to be paid monthly and that two-thirds of the income would be tax-deferred. Now, however, there are growing concerns that brokerage firms may have been negligent when marketing and selling this IGF Fund to customers. This is why Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (investorlawyers.com) are currently speaking to investors to help them determine whether they have grounds for an investor loss claim.

Lawdragon Acknowledges SSEK Law Firm Partners and Securities Fraud Lawyers Kirk Smith and Sam Edwards In Their 2022 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers List

Published on: August 3, 2022 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Award Names The Top Investor Attorneys in The US

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm at investorlawyers.com) is pleased to announce that Senior Partners and Investor Attorneys Kirk G. Smith and Samuel B. Edwards have been named in the 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers List. The award is for their work successfully representing investors in FINRA arbitration and litigation in pursuing damages from the broker-dealers, including the big firms on Wall Street, responsible for their investment losses.

Lawdragon publishes a 500 Leading Lawyers in America list each year. 2022 is the first time the legal media company created a curated list of plaintiff financial attorneys. Final candidates are vetted by competitors and peers.

Goldman Sachs Under Investigation by SEC Over ESG Funds

Published on: July 1, 2022 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Did The Firm Misrepresent Environmental, Social, and Governance Qualifications in Marketing Materials?

According to The Wall Street Journal, sources say that The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The investigation includes certain funds that utilize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. ESG investing considers these three factors when assessing an investment’s overall impact and financial returns.

Goldman Sachs’s mutual fund business oversees at least four funds with ESG or clean energy in their names. The SEC is reportedly examining these investments in terms of their environmental, social, and governance criteria and metrics that marketing materials tout them to have.

David Lerner Associates Broker Martin Walcoe May Have Sold Energy 11, Energy Resources 12, and SOAEX to Customers

Published on: July 7, 2021 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Syosset, NY Financial Advisor is Named in $920K of Pending Customer Disputes Alleging Unsuitability

Our energy, oil and gas investment fraud attorneys at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm at investorlawyers.com) are looking into allegations that David Lerner Associates broker, Martin Kevin Walcoe, may have unsuitably sold Energy 11 LP, Energy Resources 12, and Spirit of America Energy (SOAEX) investments to customers. All three investments have been sold exclusively by David Lerner Associates’ registered representatives to its customers.

Walcoe has spent his entire 34 years in the industry as a David Lerner Associates broker. He has five disclosures on his BrokerCheck record. Two of them are still pending, with customers seeking $920K in damages:

Centaurus Financial & JP Turner Brokers Including Cindy Chiellini, Atul Makharia and Greg Scott Young Targeted South Carolina & Tennessee Retirees in Structured Products Scam

Published on: June 12, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Accused of Defrauding Plant Workers, Including Retirees

Centaurus Financial advisor Ricky Mantei (Mantei Group), formerly a JP Turner stockbroker, is alleged to have been the mastermind behind a large enterprise that spanned four offices in two states and resulted in the retirement savings of many unsuspecting investors being lost.

Mantei is now named in 35 customer disputes. The majority, 30 of these broker fraud complaints, were filed over the last two years and many of them are still pending. Most of the complaints filed in the last two years accuse Mantei of heading up a one size fits all investment fraud that overconcentrated customers’ accounts in structured products and other risky, illiquid, and speculative investments. Many of his alleged victims were retirees, including plant workers in South Carolina and Tennessee.

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Investigating Claims From LPL Financial Customers Who Invested in Nontraded REITS and Publicly Traded Property Interval Funds

Published on: April 20, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

LPL Blocks Sales of Nontraded Real Estate Investment Trusts and Publicly Traded Property Interval Funds

This week, LPL Financial (LPLA) announced that it had suspended its sales of several nontraded REITs, as well as a number of publicly traded property interval funds. This is because the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was placing these investments at a higher risk of losses.

In an email to InvestmentNews, LPL EVP of Products and Platforms, Rob Pettman, wouldn’t offer the names of the funds but did note that the broker-dealer hoped to offer them to investors again once the markets had calmed.

The Top Types of Securities Fraud All Investors Must Know

Published on: April 14, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Broker Fraud Along With The Coronavirus May Be Causing Investment Losses

Becoming the victim of securities fraud is a serious matter. With stocks plummeting and the markets fluctuating all over the place in the wake of COVID-19, investors may not realize that it’s not just the economic reverberations of the coronavirus that’s plaguing their portfolio.

They also may be losing money because their stockbrokers or investment advisor were fraudulent or negligent when handling their investments and placed them in an even more precarious financial situation with more losses than they would now be sustaining otherwise.

Merrill Lynch Ordered to Pay $1.7 Million in Puerto Rico Bond Fraud Case Involving Broker Alex Gierbolini

Published on: January 27, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Merrill Lynch Fined For Involvement In Puerto Rico Bond Fraud Case

In a recent award, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has decided that Merrill Lynch must pay a former professional baseball player and his wife $1.7 million in compensatory damages, plus $88,758 in costs, for losses they sustained from investing in Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds.

The retired MLB player is Angel Pagan and his wife is Windy Pagan, a former Ms. Puerto Rico. Angel was an outfielder for the NY Mets, the Chicago Cubs, and the San Francisco Giants before retiring to live on the island.

Alleged $125M Offering Fraud Touted “Highly Profitable” Trading Strategy

Published on: October 2, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has secured an asset freeze against three people and entities accused of operating a $125M offering fraud. The regulator contends that the international trading program, run by Mediatrix Capital, Inc. and its principals Michael Stewart, Michael Young, and Bryant Sewall, touted an algorithmic trading strategy that was supposedly “highly profitable,” had never experienced a month when it didn’t make money, and rendered over 1600% of returns.

The SEC contends that the reality was a very different story, with the trading strategy regularly losing money–over $18M from trading just in 2018. The Commission is accusing the defendants of the following:

- Misrepresentations involving the trading strategy’s ability to make money