Newbridge Securities Under Investigation For GPB Sales

Newbridge Securities in Boca Raton, a Florida-based broker-dealer, is censured by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and has been fined $225K over its purported failure to adequately supervise the sale of exchange-traded funds, structured notes, and other complex securities.

The self-regulatory authority (SRO) also fined the firm’s investment banking director, Bruce Jordan, $5K for failing to properly supervise the sales. He is suspended for two months.

GPB Private Placement Lawyers

Separate from these allegations, our firm of broker misconduct lawyers at Sheperd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LLP (SSEK Law Firm) have already been investigating claims by the clients and former clients of Newbridge Securities.

The broker-dealer is one of the firms that Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Galvin, is investigating for selling GPB private placements to investors.

These private placements were sold by GPB Capital Holdings, an alternative asset firm that is accused of running a $1.5B Ponzi scam. Already, brokerage firms and their brokers have earned over $160M in commissions from the sales of GPB investments.

Meantime, investors are the ones that have suffered major losses in the wake of redemption suspensions, GPB funds plunging dramatically in value – some by more than 70% – investigations by FINRA, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and allegations of fraud by two of the company’s former business partners.

Late last week, GPB Capital’s COO Michael Cohn was charged with obstruction for allegedly stealing confidential information about the SEC’s probe into the alternative asset firm. Until he went to work with GPB last year, Cohn was a Commission examiner. He is accused of sharing this information with other GPB executives.

Yet, throughout all of this, GPB Capital and its executives deny any wrongdoing.

Newbridge Accused Of Inadequate Supervision

Meanwhile, in the current FINRA case, the SRO in its letter of acceptance, waiver and consent, said that between 7/2013 and 7/2016, Newbridge did not set up and maintain a supervisory system for complex securities sales. Nor did it set up, maintain and enforce related supervisory procedures.

The brokerage firm also is accused of, from 11/2015 through 3/2016, not having reasonable grounds for recommending the sale of a particular private placement offering, since it did not conduct the required reasonable due diligence to make such a referral. Instead, Newbridge and Jordan depended on the due diligence the issuer of the offering had performed.

Licensed in 52 states, Newbridge Securities was established in 2000. Of the 33 disclosures involving the firm, four are arbitration claims. The rest involve regulatory problems, including its alleged failure to supervise one broker who sold structured products to clients in Pennsylvania.

In 2017, the state’s Department of Banking and Securities fined Newbridge Securities $449K for inadequately supervising the broker.

Brokerage Firm Misconduct

SSEK Law Firm represents investors throughout the US who have suffered losses due to brokerage firm misconduct or negligence, including a failure to supervise its brokers.

Please contact our investor lawyers today if you are someone who invested in a GPB Capital Holding private placement fund and would like to explore your legal options. Already, we have filed multiple investor claims against a number of broker-dealers, including Arkadios Capital, Kalos Capital, and Money Concepts Capital, over these sales.