CYNK Latest Wall Street Trap?

Post by Alan Perry on

Cynk is a social network company that has no revenue, no assets, and no profits. Until last week, it was the hottest stock on Wall Street, according to a Business Insider report by Hunter Walker and Julia La Roche (July 14, 2014).  Its stock rose to $21 per share on July 10th, which gave the […]

Former LPL Broker Jason Parker Leaves Trail Of Complaints

Post by Alan Perry on

By law, a broker has to recommend suitable investments. To be considered suitable, an investment should align with the client’s investment objectives. Dumping all client funds into a single foreign stock, despite the client’s low tolerance for risk, could be considered unsuitable. As indicated by the complaints reported in FINRA’s BrokerCheck, a former broker at […]

Pension Advisers Fall Under Scrutiny

Post by Alan Perry on

The problem of conflicts of interest for pension advisers attracted Congressional attention, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Dan Fitzpatrick  (June 9, 2014).  U.S. Representative George Miller (D., Calif.) has written a letter to the Labor Department that asks the Department to examine the conflicts of interest in the pension advising industry. The […]

Zuckerberg, Facebook Directors Sued Over Excessive Pay

Post by Alan Perry on

Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of Facebook’s board are facing a derivative suit that alleges the company is paying its directors too much, according to a Reuters report written by Johnathan Stempel (June 9, 2014).  Facebook shareholder Ernesto Espinoza filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court that said that the $461,000 paid on average to […]

Judge Who Refused To Roll Over Overruled By Second Circuit

Post by Alan Perry on

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overruled a decision by Judge Jed Rakoff of the District Court in Manhattan, according to a New York Times article written by Ben Protess and Matthew Goldstein (June 4, 2014).   Judge Rakoff’s decision from 2011 rejected a settlement negotiated between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) […]

FINRA’s BrokerCheck Full Of Holes

Post by Alan Perry on

FINRA’s system for revealing red flags about brokers may not disclose all the information that it is supposed to, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Jean Eaglesham and Rob Barry (March 7, 2014).  A report by FINRA’s BrokerCheck should include information about felony charges and convictions, personal bankruptcy petitions filed within 10 years, […]

SEC Charges Former LPL Advisor With Fraud

Post by Alan Perry on

On May 23, 2013, the SEC charged a former LPL Financial LLC advisor, Blake Richards, with fraud and misappropriating $2 million from at least six clients.  The SEC filed the civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. According to an article by Bruce Kelly in Investment News, “when investors […]

Wells Fargo Settles Medical Capital Class Action for $105 Million

Post by Alan Perry on

InvestmentNews reports that Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $105 million in a class action lawsuit brought by investors who purchased Medical Capital notes.  The notes turned out to be a fraudulent medical receivables scheme. The note holders alleged that Well Fargo, one of two trustee banks in the scheme, failed to protect […]

Front-End Bonus Payments May Need To Be Disclosed

Post by J. Boyd Page on

If your broker or financial adviser told you he was moving to another brokerage firm and asked you to move your account there, would you want to know if he was being paid thousands or millions of dollars to make the move?  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) thinks so, and is proposing a new […]

Brokerage Firm ‘Shoots First and Asks Questions Later’

Post by J. Boyd Page on

When a securities brokerage firm sues to collect the balance due under a promissory note from one of its brokers, the securities industry often views the case as close as one can get to a “slam dunk” case for the firm.  When UBS Financial Services sued former brokers James Kirwin and Joanne Meninger for amounts […]