SEC Category Archives — Page 5 of 13 — Investor Lawyers Blog Published by New York, New York Investor Attorneys

Published on: November 2, 2012

Recovery of Dividend Capital REIT Losses

Many investors are exploring the possibility of recovering their Dividend Capital REIT losses through securities arbitration. Dividend Capital Total Realty Trust Inc. is, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filing, a Maryland corporation, formed on April 11, 2005, and located in Denver, Colorado. Its goal is to invest in a portfolio of real estate-related and real property investments. It has targeted investments that include direct investments that consist of high-quality industrial, office, mutli-family, and retail real properties, located primarily in North America. The corporation also invests in securities like mortgage loans, and securities issued by separate real estate companies.

Recovery of Dividend Capital REIT Losses

Many firms have offered to buy shares of Dividend Capital from investors at a price that has been significantly reduced from what they initially paid include. Some of these firms include MPF Income Fund 26 LLC, MPF Northstar Fund LP, MPF Flaship Fund 14 LLC, MPF Platinum Fund LP, MPF Flagship Fund 15 LLC, and Coastal Realty Business Trust.

Recently, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration statement of claim related to Dividend Capital REIT was filed against Wells Fargo Investments LLC. If the claim is successful, investors hope to recover around $200,000 in REIT losses. The Claimant is a retired Iowa farmer. Allegations include breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, common law fraud and negligent supervision. Furthermore, the allegations state that Wells Fargo’s investment of the client’s funds was unsuitable because of an over-concentration of assets in the illiquid, high-risk, non-traded REIT.

Published on: October 25, 2012

Investors Allegedly Overcharged Customers $18.7 Million; Four Brokers Facing Charges

by InvestorLawyers

According to stock fraud lawyers, four brokers were recently charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud. The SEC’s allegations state that the four brokers illegally overcharged their customers $18.7 million. Reportedly they perpetuated their fraud by keeping a portion of profitable trades executed in customer accounts and using hidden markups and markdowns. The brokers named in the charges are Henry Condron, Benjamin Chouchane, Marek Leszczynski and Gregory Reyftmann.

Investors Allegedly Overcharged Customers $18.7 Million; Four Brokers Facing Charges

The clients of these brokers may have thought they were getting a great deal as, according to the SEC’s complaint, the brokers purported incredibly low commissions, often fractions of pennies or pennies per transaction. However, in actuality, when executing customers’ purchase and sell orders, they were reporting false prices. Reportedly, the hidden markups and markdowns were intentionally charged at times when the market was volatile. Investment fraud lawyers say this made the fraud particularly difficult to detect. The markups and markdowns occurred over a period of four years, involved over 36,000 transactions and ranged from only a few dollars up to $228,000. This resulted in fees that were sometimes altered from what had been reported to customers by over 1,000 percent.

In another part of the scheme, a customer sought to buy shares and specified a limited price. The brokers allegedly filled the order at the maximum price, but sold part of the order in order to obtain a profit for their firm. Next, they informed the customer that they were unable to complete the order at the maximum price set. During this time, millions of dollars were being made by these brokers through performance bonuses based on fraudulent earnings. In total, the brokers received over $15.6 million in performance bonuses, part of which resulted from earnings related to fraud.

Published on: October 24, 2012

Domin-8 Private Placement Investors Could Recover Losses

by InvestorLawyers

Securities fraud attorneys are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investment in a Domin-8 private placement. Domin-8 is a provider of “advanced enterprise software applications and related services to the U.S. multi-family housing property management industry” based out of Ohio, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Domin-8 Private Placement Investors Could Recover Losses

Because private placements like Domin-8 are typically more complicated and carry more risk than other traditional investments, they are usually only suitable for sophisticated, high-net-worth investors, according to investment fraud lawyers. Private placements allow smaller companies to use the sale of debt securities or equities to raise capital without it becoming necessary for them to register these securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission. One Domin-8 private placement, Domin-8 7 percent Series C Senior Subordinated Convertible Dentures, began its attempt to raise $10,000,000 in the latter part of 2007.

FINRA Executive Vice President and Chief of Enforcement, Brad Bennett, has stated that, “FINRA continues to look closely at sales of private placements to determine whether the selling firms are fulfilling their responsibilities to customers.”

Published on: October 22, 2012

Elderly Investors Targeted by Pennsylvania Financial Advisor

by InvestorLawyers

David L. Rothman, a Pennsylvania resident, has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding elderly clients. Stock fraud lawyers say the civil and criminal charges accuse Rothman of sending his clients falsified account statements that inflated the value of their accounts. Then, in a repayment scheme, Rothman took funds from another client in order to repay those who received phony statements.

Elderly Investors Targeted by Pennsylvania Financial Advisor

According to the SEC’s complaint, the two clients were “elderly and unsophisticated investors” which, securities arbitration lawyers say, made them ideal targets for Rothman’s fraud. The complaint further alleges that the fraud occurred from 2006-2011 and the falsified statements “materially overstated” the value of the clients’ investments. In addition, allegations against Rothman state that once the investors realized the fraud had taken place, the financial advisor stated that he would repay the statements’ reported value. However, his financial resources eventually ran short.

Apparently, Rothman was previously censured by the CFP Board in 2004. This separate matter involved the purchasing of mutual fund Class S shares.

Published on: October 18, 2012

Layton Energy Wharton LP Investors Could Recover Losses

by InvestorLawyers

Stock fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investment in a Layton Energy Wharton LP product. As a Texas-based energy company, Layton Energy Wharton offers various private placements, one of which is Layton Energy Wharton LP. Launched in 2007, this investment’s aim was to raise $10,000,000 for the purpose of acquiring interests in oil and gas deals, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Layton Energy Wharton LP Investors Could Recover Losses

According to securities arbitration lawyers, because private placements like Layton Energy Wharton LP are typically more complicated and carry more risk than other traditional investments, they are usually only suitable for sophisticated, high-net-worth investors. Private placements allow smaller companies to use the sale of debt securities or equities to raise capital without it becoming necessary for them to register these securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

FINRA Executive Vice President and Chief of Enforcement, Brad Bennett, has stated that, “FINRA continues to look closely at sales of private placements to determine whether the selling firms are fulfilling their responsibilities to customers.”

Published on: October 11, 2012

Fidelity Customers Could Recover Losses

by InvestorLawyers

Stock fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investments with Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company Inc. Reportedly, Fidelity Brokerage Services and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent recently. In this letter, the firms were jointly censured and fined $375,000.

Fidelity Customers Could Recover Losses

According to the allegations against them, the firms sold, wholesaled and/or marketed an income mutual fund’s shares and, in connection, created training, wholesaling and/or advertising materials for the fund. These materials were provided to the retail sales firms, used within the selling intermediaries for institutional purposes, used internally, used for institutional purposes and provided to public customers.

Securities arbitration lawyers say that the findings stated that some of the sales materials distributed by the firms were misleading, unbalanced, failed to provide a sound basis for evaluating the risks of the funds and contained statements that were unwarranted. Furthermore, the firms allegedly failed to perform timely updates on the sales materials which affected the accuracy of the portrayal of the negative impacts resulting from the sub-prime crisis. This resulted in an inaccurate representation of the value of the portfolio investments and share of the fund and unqualified promises about future performance.

Published on: October 4, 2012

Advanced Equities Investors May Have Securities Arbitration Claim

by InvestorLawyers

Securities arbitration lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of Advanced Equities customers who invested in what reportedly was known as Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley alternative energy company. On September 18, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged co-founders Keith G. Daubenspeck and Dwight O. Badger, a FINRA registered broker-dealer, and Advanced Equities Inc. in connection with the private offerings of an alternative energy company offered in 2009 and 2010. According to the allegations, Advanced Equities misled investors and failed to adequately supervise the offerings in two private equity offerings.

Advanced Equities Investors May Have Securities Arbitration Claim

Reportedly, Daubenspeck is the parent company’s board chairman and Badger was the parent company’s former chief executive. Together, they founded Advanced Equities. The SEC has stated that the sales effort was led by Badger, who misstated facts about the finances of the energy company, and Daubenspeck failed to correct these misstatements, which resulted in a failure to adequately supervise.

One of these misstatements, according to the SEC and stock fraud lawyers, occurred in the 2009 offering when Badger said the company had order backlogs amounting to more than $2 billion when, in fact, this amount never exceeded $42 million. In addition, he said a national grocery store chain had placed a $1 billion order when, in reality, it was only a $2 million order, with a non-binding letter of intent for future purchases, that had been placed by the store. Badger also stated that a U.S. Department of Energy loan had been granted to the company that exceeded $250 million, but only a $96.8 million loan had been applied for. This loan application misstatement was repeated in 2010 during the follow-up offering. Reportedly, Daubenspeck, when hearing these misstatements during his participation in at least two internal sales calls, remained silent. No reasonable corrections were made despite these red flags and, as a result, an obvious risk of investors receiving this false information went unchecked. According to securities arbitration lawyers, when misstatements like this are made in an internal sales call to brokers, it is likely that the brokers will unknowingly pass this false information to investors.

Published on: October 3, 2012

SEC Suspension Could Result in Investor Arbitration Claims

by InvestorLawyers

Following a recent announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission, securities fraud attorneys are investigating potential claims on behalf of investors who suffered losses in investments from a variety of issuers. The following issuers were temporarily suspended by the SEC pursuant to Section 12(k) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:

SEC Suspension Could Result in Investor Arbitration Claims

Alto Group Holdings Inc. (ALTO)
AER Energy Resources Inc. (AERN)

Published on: September 27, 2012

Victim of Stephen B. Blankenship Fraud Could Recover Losses

by InvestorLawyers

Investment fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of individuals who invested with Stephen B. Blankenship and were, as a result of Blankenship’s actions, victims of securities fraud. A recent announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission stated that it has charged Blankenship and his company with stealing from customers. These customers, who were persuaded by Blankenship to make withdrawals from their brokerage accounts to invest directly with him, lost at least $600,000 to his fraud. The accounts from which they withdrew these funds were managed by Blankenship but were held at other firms.

Victim of Stephen B. Blankenship Fraud Could Recover Losses

According to the SEC’s allegations, Blankenship lured customers in with assurances of greater rates of return if they would transfer their money to Deer Hill Financial Group, Blankenship’s firm. Furthermore, he claimed to be investing in publicly-traded mutual funds and other established securities but, instead, made no such investments and transferred his customer’s money to his personal bank account. The money was then allegedly used to pay various personal expenses, including travel, grocery bills and mortgage payments.

“Blankenship took advantage of fellow churchgoers and senior citizens who relied on their savings for retirement and placed their trust in him,” says David P. Bergers, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. “He betrayed that trust by using their money to make personal credit card payments and home improvements.”

Published on: September 26, 2012

JP Turner Victims of Churning Could Recover Losses

by InvestorLawyers

Stock fraud lawyers are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investment with JP Turner, Ralph Calabro, Jason Konner or Dimitrios Koutsoubos. Earlier in September, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged three brokers, formerly employed at JP Turner & Company in Atlanta, with “churning” accounts, incurring significant fees for themselves and causing significant losses to investors.

JP Turner Victims of Churning Could Recover Losses

In this case, the investors whose accounts were churned had conservative investment objectives. However, securities fraud attorneys say that when “churning” an account, the broker will disregard investment objectives and, instead, excessively trade in the account in order to generate commissions, margin interest, and fees for themselves or the firm at which they are employed. According to the SEC allegations, Calabro, Konner and Koutsoubos engaged in churning between January 2008 and December 2009, while they were employed with JP Turner.

Together, these three brokers generated approximately $845,000 through churning, while their customers suffered significant aggregate losses totaling around $2.7 million. If it can be proven that the firm failed to adequately supervise their brokers, in many cases that firm may be held liable for customer losses regardless of the employees’ ability to reimburse their clients for fraud.