Morgan Keegan & Company and Morgan Asset Management have agreed to pay $200 million to settle fraud charges related to bond funds that invested in subprime mortgage-backed securities. The charges were filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, state regulators from Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). […]
Investors in non-traded real estate investment trusts known as Apple REITs, which invest in hotels, have filed a class action suit against David Lerner Associates (“DLA”) to recover alleged losses of more than $6.8 billion, claiming the firm acted negligently in sales and underwriting of the REIT, according to an InvestmentNews article entitled “David Lerner […]
Wall Street’s pay practices place financial advisors’ personal interests in direct conflict with the interest of their clients. This is one of many reasons that Wall Street firms oppose the adoption of a fiduciary standard that would require financial advisors to put their clients interest first.
In one of the largest dollar awards to date in a Lehman note case against UBS Financial Services Inc., a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel “walloped” UBS, ordering it to pay former Philadelphia 76ers President Pat Croce more than $2 million for losses in so-called “100% Principal Protected” Lehman notes that were sold […]
Unlisted, private REITs have been the subject of many abuses and investors face losing their shirts in these investments. The recent demise of Apple REIT investments underscore the dangers. “Owning hotels is anything but a safe, volatility-free way to invest money,” but that is not what broker-dealer David Lerner Associates (“DLA”) told its clients, according […]
The number one rated analyst covering brokerage firms, Brad Hintz, is telling his clients that if Goldman Sachs committed any crimes by misleading its clients about mortgage-backed securities, the firm will will be offered a “slap on the wrist” deal called “deferred prosecution” because it is viewed as “too big to fail,” according to Christine […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is forming a small-business committee to review securities offering rules that would make it easier for small private firms to raise capital but might also make it easier for fraudsters to operate, according to a series of recent Wall Street Journal articles (“SEC to Form Small-Business Committee”, “‘Startup America’ […]
The Texas securities commissioner has issued an emergency cease-and-desist order against Insignia Energy Group Inc., its affiliate IEG Permian Basin LLC, Martin D. Lewis, president of both firms, and salesman Jarvis Wayne Willis, arising out of findings of fact by the commissioner that they made misrepresentations and omissions of material facts about an oil and […]
Concerned that securities industry zealots and a Republican Congress will succeed in delaying an SEC rule that would require brokers who provide retail investment advice to act solely in their client’s best interest, investor advocates are stepping up their campaign to urge the SEC to move forward with a rule, according to an InvestmentNews article […]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined Wells Fargo Advisers $1 million for failing to timely deliver prospectuses to approximately 934,000 customers who bought mutual funds in 2009, according to an InvestmentNews article entitled “Wells took up to 153 days to get prospectuses to mutual fund buyers: Finra.”
