Wall Street Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

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 Arbitration Commentator (SAC) recently took notice of a new investor education project that was spearheaded by our own Jason Doss.  Mr. Doss is a recent past president of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, or PIABA, and the current president of the PIABA Foundation.  PIABA is an association of attorneys from around the country who…

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…

A South Carolina grand jury has indicted a Greenville broker named Claus Foerster for defrauding his clients out of $2.8 million.  According to news reports, the indictments states that Foerster persuaded clients to invest in a fictitious company called SG Investment Management.  According to the Associated Press, Foerster provided his clients with bogus earnings statements…

Following up on our previous blog post, broker dealers that sold UDF non-traded REITs to investors include, but are not limited to, IMS Securities Inc., Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc., Centaurus Financial Inc., and VSR Financial Services, Inc. These firms have a history of regulatory violations and customer complaints: The Financial Industry Regulatory…

Following up on our previous blog post, United Development Funding IV was organized on May 28, 2008.  UDF IV shares began trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol “UDF” on June 4, 2014.  Prior to June 4, 2012, UDF IV was a public non-traded REIT. An investment in a public non-traded REIT is essentially an…

Shares of United Development Funding IV collapsed 55% to $3.20 per share on Thursday, February 18, before trading was halted.  UDF IV is a publicly traded REIT.  The collapse occurred after the FBI raided the company’s offices in Texas.  A prominent hedge fund manager had previously accused UDF IV of essentially operating as billion dollar…