Ex-UBS Puerto Rico Broker David Lugo Ordered to Appear in Federal Court

SSEK Investigating Investor Claims Against Ex-UBS Puerto Rico Broker 

For the last several years, Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LLP (“SSEK Law Firm”) has been actively working with investors to recover the massive losses they sustained because brokers and their firms recommended that they invest in Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds. 

SSEK Law Firm continues to investigate such claims, including those involving UBS and its brokers. David Jose Lugo (“Lugo”) is one of these former UBS registered representatives and SSEK Law Firm is very familiar with Lugo. 

SSEK Law Firm has successfully arbitrated several cases for Lugo’s former clients, including receiving a $10 million award for one client. That eight-figure award included an award of $1,000,000 against UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico (“UBS”) for its failure to supervise Lugo. 

Former UBS Broker, David Lugo, Ordered To Appear In Federal Court

Lugo was recently ordered by the federal court in Puerto Rico to give testimony this month, per the request of Carisalager Investment (“Carisalager”). The firm says that Lugo served as one of its financial advisors. Carisalager has its own pending complaint against UBS. 

Lugo, who left UBS in 2015 and is no longer a registered broker, has 204 disclosures on his BrokerCheck record. All of them are customer disputes, mostly over the sale of Puerto Rico investments. Many of the disputes are still pending. 

Among the allegations made by claimants in the disclosures are overconcentration, unsuitable recommendations, and misrepresentation of the risks involved. Many of the customer disputes are seeking six- to seven- figures in damages. 

Puerto Rico Bond Funds: Previous Convictions 

Lugo was one of the brokers named in the criminal sentencing memorandum of another ex-UBS broker, Jose Ramirez, who pleaded guilty to fraud for misrepresenting loan documents when using leverage to buy more closed-end Puerto Rico bond funds. 

Also known as “The Whopper,” Ramirez earned over $1.2M from the transactions that put him in jail. While he has admitted having encouraged investors to take out credit lines so they could invest even more in the Puerto Rico securities, Ramirez claims that he was not the only one, implicating Lugo and others, including UBS, which he said knew about the fraud. 

UBS Puerto Rico has been accused of pressuring its own brokers to keep selling the beleaguered investments to clients even while knowing the securities were failing. As a result, its clients invested more than $10 Billion in the Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds. 

Given SSEK Law Firm’s success in representing Lugo’s former clients, SSEK Law Firm stands ready to continue to help investors who lost money with UBS and David Lugo. Lugo’s former customers say that he never apprised them of the risks involved or that their investments could prove unstable. This is why they were caught off guard when the market plunged in value, causing many of them to suffer huge losses. 

Puerto Rico Investor Fraud Claims

UBS Puerto Rico brokers are not the only ones who sold Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end bond funds to investors. Santander Securities, Banco Popular, and Oriental Securities and other broker-dealers also marketed these investments to their clients. 

Contact SSEK Law Firm if you are an investor who suffered losses with any Puerto Rico investments. Already, we have helped Puerto Rico investors recover tens of millions of dollars.