Articles Posted in Investment Fraud

Americans lose between $40 and $50 Billion every year to investment fraud. Additionally, up to 17 percent of the U.S. adult population falls prey to some form of investment scam in any given year. A significant part of financial success involves risk-taking. Therefore, when one is presented with a proposition that is lucrative yet does not seem…

Jay Costa Kelter, a Marietta, Georgia investment advisor, was recently charged with defrauding three retirees out of their retirement savings, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution entitled “Marietta man accused of bilking elderly investors,” written by Lori Norder.  Kelter is the subject of both a criminal action and a civil action filed…

On September 29, 2017, Richard G. Cody, 43, of Jacksonville, Fla., a former investment advisor, was arrested in Florida on charges of violating the Investment Advisors Act of 1940 and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission in a court proceeding, according to an insurancenewsnet.com article entitled “Former Investment Advisor Indicted for Fraud and Perjury.”  The Financial…

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that UBS Financial Services will pay more than $15 million to settle charges related to unsuitable sales of reverse convertible notes (“RCNs”) to individual (“retail”) investors.  The SEC found that UBS failed to adequately educate and train its sales force in connection with the sale of RCNs as a result…

Our firm has already filed many individual lawsuits alleging, among other things, investment fraud against Leavitt Sanders and the firms that he traded through.  Those firms include Invest Financial, Triad Advisors, Capital Asset Advisory Services, Sanders Yearian Advisory Group and Leavitt Financial Group. We have developed direct evidence that supports the allegations that these firms…

Reuters reports that bankruptcies in the U.S. oil industry have reached record levels.  The number of bankrupt oil and gas companies is 59 and counting, and we are not even half-way through the wave of bankruptcy filings, according to a Reuters article entitled U.S. oil industry bankruptcy wave nears size of telecom bust.  As the article’s…

On December 15, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission commenced an action in federal district court in the Southern District of New York against Edward Durante for fraud in the sale of millions of dollars of VGTel stock to numerous of investors.  On January 6, 2016, the SEC filed an Amended Complaint naming Abida Khan, Larry Werbel, Christopher Cervino,…

Fraud is always a danger in the world of investment advisers. In a recent example of this, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced fraud charges against Arthur F. Jacob, age 56, and his firm, Innovative Business Solutions LLC (“IBS”) of Florida.  Jacob is a disbarred attorney and a Certified Public Accountant whose history includes misappropriation of client…

On June 29, 2015 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced fraud charges against Wisconsin-based investment advisory firm and owner Mark P. Welhouse of Welhouse and Associates Inc. The firm and owner are being charged with improperly allocating certain options trades that appreciated in value to personal and business accounts, while allocating other trades that depreciated…

In the November 2015 issue of Consumer Reports, light is shed on the fact that roughly 1 in 20 senior adults claim to have been financially abused and why seniors seem to be among the most frequent targets of fraudsters. These perpetrators disguise themselves as government officials such as the FBI or the IRS and claim…