Wall Street Continues to Perpetuate the Same Old Abuses

 

A former UBS research analyst has filed a lawsuit filed against the bank alleging that he was fired for refusing to write inaccurate research reports to benefit (or avoid harming) UBS’s trading positions in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. The analyst reportedly seeks reinstatement with 2.5 times accrued back pay. (“Former UBS Research Analyst Sues Firm,” by Craig Karmin, Wall Street Journal).

The research analyst, senior strategist Trevor Murray, reportedly said he was pressured by members of the firm’s commercial mortgage-backed security desk to “skew his published research in ways designed to support” UBS’s trading and lending activities. Ken Cohen, head of UBS’s CMBS trading, allegedly told Mr. Murray that his research reports should help “improve conditions in the CMBS market” because this was a “significant revenue generator” for the firm, and that UBS was securitizing a loan for a Miami hotel. Mr. Cohen directed Mr. Murray “not to publish anything negative about the hotel sector because of UBS Securities’ exposure,” according to the complaint filed by Mr. Murray.

Mr. Murray’s lawsuit further states that he “did not publish any report that was inconsistent with his own research,” and that he informed his superiors about the attempts to compromise his research reports, but the only action taken was terminating him for blowing the whistle internally – that is, for using the supposedly “robust” internal reporting procedures that Wall Street banks claim are being undermined by Dodd-Frank whistleblower protections.

Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm with over 170 years of collective experience maintaining integrity in the investment markets and protecting investor rights.