FINRA Arbitration Attorney

UBS Financial Services Ordered To Pay $92.2M in Damages To Investors Over Short Sale of Tesla Shares. High-Yield Trading Strategy Was Unsuitable Recommendation By UBS Broker Andrew Burish, Says FINRA Arbitration Panel 

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has ordered UBS Financial Services (UBS) To Pay $92.2M in damages to investors who contend that they sustained $23M in losses after their UBS broker unsuitably engaged in a high-risk trading strategy involving the shorting of Tesla Inc. shares.

$69.1M of the award is punitive damages. That’s 75% of the total award.

Also a respondent in the case is UBS financial advisor Andrew D. Burish, who was found liable for $4.5M in compensatory damages and $500K in punitive damages. The Madison, Wisconsin financial advisor has been a UBS broker for more than 40 years. He also runs The Burish Group, which manages more than $6.2B  in client assets.

This FINRA lawsuit alleged a breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability, failure to supervise, and fraud. The investors contend that UBS and Burish solicited and recommended an aggressive, high-risk trading strategy meant to generate speculative, short-term profits as opposed to long-term wealth preservation. The claimants, who are adamant that they are not professional investors, say that the recommendation to hold highly risky positions was not in line with the “asset protection and multi-generational wealth transfer” that was touted to them. They allege that the respondents not only unsuitably recommended this short-selling strategy, but also encouraged them to keep holding the positions “in the face of mounting losses.”  The investors also contend that Burish did not let them know that he himself had stopped shorting Tesla in his own account from July 2019 to June 2020.

This is not the first time UBS has come under scrutiny for allegedly recommending unsuitable trading strategies to wealthy investors. Its UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (UBS YES) led to many FINRA lawsuits by accredited investors who claimed they were marketing what was supposedly a conservative approach and was, in fact, a risky, iron condor strategy that involved borrowing on margin. As UBS earned almost  $100M yearly, UBS YES investors ended up losing $1B at the end of it all.

In 2021, our investment loss recovery lawyers secured a $405K arbitration award against UBS over YES strategy losses sustained by two investors.

The SSEK FINRA Arbitration Attorney Teams are Representing Investors Against UBS Financial Advisors

Over the years, Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (investorlawyers.com) have represented many retail investors and high-net-worth investors against UBS Financial Service over losses they experienced because of broker misconduct or negligence. This includes securing a $9M FINRA arbitration award on behalf of someone who sustained losses in Puerto Rico bonds.

We also represent many investors against UBS and other broker-dealers whose financial advisors pushed aggressive, high-risk trading strategies onto them to our client’s detriment.

With more than a century’s worth of combined experience in securities law and the securities industry, our broker misconduct attorneys have the resources and experience to go after the largest Wall Street firms while maximizing your chances for a full financial recovery.

But first, you’ll have to meet with us for your free, initial case consultation so we can help you determine whether your portfolio losses warrant grounds for suing your broker-dealer.

Call our FINRA Arbitration Attorney team at (800) 259-9010 or fill out this form.