Investment Litigation Blog

Oregonian Article Alerts Investors to the Dangers of High Return Investments The Chief of Enforcement at the Division of Finance and Corporate Securities Consumer & Business Services Department (DFCS), Van Pounds,  was both quoted in Molly Young’s recent Oregonian article about high return investments and Salem investment adviser Kevin Winder.  Winder lost his license for…

FINRA announced yesterday that as part of a settlement reached with brokerage firm LPL Financial LLC, it is fining LPL $10 million for broad supervisory failures over multiple years and ordered almost $1.7 million in restitution to certain LPL customers. The sanctions are for LPL’s supervisory failures including failure to adequately supervise LPL broker sales…

As part of the “National Senior Investor Initiative”, in 2013 FINRA and the SEC conducted 44 examinations of brokerage firms that focused on how firms conduct business with senior investors (defined as age 65 and older) as they prepare for and enter retirement.  A newly issued report gives the results. The exams found that among…

We are sometimes asked whether FINRA arbitrations are public.   Anyone can go to a courthouse and observe a hearing or trial unless there are good reasons for the court to order the proceeding closed to the public. However, FINRA arbitration hearings are private proceedings.   That means that only the parties and their attorneys, expert witnesses…

Investment News reported today that LPL Financial is being asked to pay $3.6 million in investor repayments and fines. The state of New Hampshire and LPL financial on Monday slapping LPL with a $1 million fine and $200,000 in investigative costs in addition to the $2.4 million in buybacks and restitution for clients.The state alleges unsuitable…

FINRA announced on March 26, 2015 that it had fined brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. $2.5 million and ordered it to pay $1.25 million in restitution based on failing to supervise its former registered representative Mark Hotton.  Hotton was permanently barred from the securities industry in August, 2013 after stealing money from his clients…

On March 25, the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) released its study of confusing advertising messages by major broker-dealer firms like Allstate, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Berthel Fisher, Ameriprise Financial, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, Wells Fargo, and Charles Schwab. While these firms advertise that they put their clients’ interest first, excerpts from FINRA arbitration filings…

Investor Choice. Since 1987, when the Supreme Court decided McMahon v. Shearson Lehman Brothers, investors have been denied their Constitutional right to a jury trial. Instead, if they have lost money through the fraud or negligence of a FINRA-licensed stockbroker, financial advisor or brokerage firm, investors are required to bring their cases through the FINRA…

Was it a victory for investors? It seems so. Justice Elena Kagan’s written decision issued on March 24, 2015 in Omnicare, Inc., et al. v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund, et al. clarified the standards for investor claims under Section 11 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933.   Pension fund representatives and…

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation issued a new research report, “Non-Traditional Costs of Financial Fraud,” based on a survey of 600 self-reported fraud victims. The survey details the emotional tolls and indirect costs (bounced checks, lost wages, lost opportunities, bankruptcy filings) that may come from losing money in a fraud. Victims who lost the greater…