Foreign investors continue to be targets of investment fraud. Bloomberg Business has reported that broker-dealer Arjent LLC Chief Executive Officer Robert DePalo has been indicted by a New York Grand Jury on charges related to misappropriation of $6.5 million from U.K. investors for personal expenses, including his mortgage and luxury cars. …
Broker Dealer Financial Services Corp. (BDFS) based out of West Des Moines, Iowa just learned the hard way that nontraditional Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are risky, speculative investments and are not appropriate for all investors. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently fined BDFS $75,000 for 1. failing to properly…
A former University of Washington faculty member pled guilty in connection with a Ponzi scheme that lasted at least six years. It has been reported by the Washington State Sky Valley Chronicle on May 20, 2015 that Satyen Chatterjee, who owned and operated a financial advisory business called Strategic Capital…
Victims of securities fraud and negligence are entitled to receive damages to compensate them for their losses, as well as other remedies that may be available depending on the specific case. Frequently investors who have lost money in their investment accounts do not realize that they may be the victims…
Not far from the home of the original “Ponzi scheme” in Boston, the SEC filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island on May 7, 2015 alleging that financial advisor and former broker Patrick Churchville operated a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of $11…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has permanently barred Nicholas Hansen Harper. Harper worked in Wells Fargo’s Topeka, Kansas branch office from 1997 through 2013 according to his BrokerCheck Report. Per the Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent filed with FINRA, Harper resigned from Wells Fargo on August 7, 2013,…
What should happen to a financial advisor (FA) if they provide unsuitable and inappropriate investment advice to their clients? First, if the unsuitable advice given to a customer caused losses to that customer’s account, the customer has the option to sue the FA in FINRA arbitration. Investors can recover some…
This oil and gas investment was a bust, but not because of the current market conditions. According to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) court filings, brokers Jeffrey Gainer, Jerry Cicolani, Jr. and Kelly Hood were terminated from their employer PrimeSolutions Securities, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio broker-dealer, as a result of…
Is it okay for a broker-dealer to use bonuses and other incentives to encourage its financial advisors to steer customers into “in house” and proprietary funds that may not be right for them just to generate more fees for the firm? Or does this practice improperly (and illegally) incentivize the…
On the heels of an announcement from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) that LPL Financial LLC has been fined approximately $12 million as a result of lax supervision, FINRA barred former LPL broker Charles Fackrell as a result of him refusing to comply with FINRA’s request for information. Mr. Fackrell…