Wall Street Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

On December 26, 2012, FINRA ordered Pruco Securities, LLC to pay $10.7 million in restitution, plus interest, and a $550,000 fine for inaccurately pricing mutual funds. The firm was charged with having an inadequate supervisory system and procedures in place to detect the problem. According to the SEC website, Pruco’s retail brokerage business, COMMAND, mishandled mutual fund…

On December 27, 2012, FINRA fined Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley more than $4.48 million for “unfairly obtaining the reimbursement of fees they paid to the California Public Securities Association from proceeds of municipal and state bond offerings.” This was a violation of fair dealing and supervisory rules of the…

On October 18, 2012, FINRA censured and fined Memphis, Tennessee Morgan Keegan & Co. (CRD# 4161) $365,000 for its failure to “establish and maintain a supervisory system” to achieve compliance with NASD/FINRA rules in connection with the sale of non-rraditional ETFs. According to FINRA’s website, Morgan Keegan provided retail brokerage services and concurrently “failed to…

When investors consider purchasing municipal bonds, there are many areas to understand. The SEC has provided a checklist of areas to pay special attention to when making this type of investment decision. What Are Municipal Bonds? Municipal bonds are debt securities issued by states, cities, counties, or other government entities. They are used to finance and fund…

Senator Howard Stephenson, from Utah, is currently targeting publically available internet broker records. Senator Stephenson complains that the “long-reach” of internet search engines “unfairly” reveal and publicize past enforcement investigations regarding investment brokers. He believes that these publically available enforcement investigations are smearing brokers’ reputations. The Utah Securities Commission though has disregard Senator Stephenson’s complaint; when…

On December 19, 2012, Bishop Wiley Jackson, and his brother Rodney Jackson, with Gospel Tabernacle Church were indicted on eight (8) counts of criminal charges for running an investment scheme. The indictment charges the Jackson brothers with: The sale of unregistered securities (O.C.G.A 10-5-5(a)(1)(3)); The sale of securities by one who is not a registered salesman…

In the recent Massachusetts Securities Division suit against LPL Financial over non-traded REITs, Inland American Real Estate Trust was targeted. So who exactly is Inland American? In short, Inland American is the industry’s largest non-traded real estate investment trust. According to their website, Inland American Real Estate Trust, Inc. is a publicly traded Maryland corporation sponsored by their…

On December 12, 2012 the Massachusetts Securities Division filed suit against LPL Financial, LLC regarding the sale of non-traded REITs. Massachusetts specifically targeted LPL’s sale of Inland American Real Estate Trust. According to the complaint, LPL received at least $1,403,477.40 in commissions from sales of Inland American’s non-traded REITs. According to a recent article in InvestmentNews entitled Galvin’s LPL…

Over the last six weeks, we have spoken to over sixty (60) nervous investors with concerns about the recent events and negative press swirling around FINRA’s complaint filed against David Lerner and the Apple REIT investments. Most, if not all of the those investors indicated that they intended immediately to redeem their shares in Apple…

Apparently since David Lerner began selling Apple REIT investments to moms and pops across the country ($6.8 billion), it has consistently listed the price per share of the various Apple REIT investments as $11. The accuracy of this $11 per share amount is undermined, however, by the fact that the values and profitability of the…