Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle has filed 11 lawsuits against an array of Wall Street banks, seeking rescind $4 billion of mortgage-backed securities with interest, according to a Feb. 16 Wall Street Journal article by Nick Timiraos, “Home Loan Bank Sues Wall Street Firm.” The lawsuits were filed in late December in King County Superior Court in Washington. A spokeswoman for The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle said the institution had "a responsibility to its member shareholders to enforce its rights."

Continue reading "Federal Home Loan Bank Sues Securities Firms to Recover Subprime Losses" »

Charles Schwab Corp. added a record number of independent investment advisors in 2009 as thousands of brokers left Wall Street firms, like Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, to launch their own investment advisory firms. See Reuters “Schwab says ‘breakaway broker’ trend has legs,” by Joe Rauch, Jan. 25.

Continue reading "Charles Schwab Confirms Trend of Brokers Breaking Away from Major Firms" »

There have been various developments over the past several weeks which investors may consider relevant in allocating their resources or evaluating alternatives that are available to them. Some of the more significant developments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the week at 10,067 and, on Monday jumped 118 points.

• On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 111 points.

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 26 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 268 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points and closed the week at 10,012.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - February 5, 2010" »

How short their memories. Wall Street firms on the brink of failure until rescued by a controversial taxpayer bailout continue to show their unabashed greed by claiming entitlement to massive amounts of money earned on funds "invested" by American taxpayers. Without those bailouts, most, if not all the Wall Street firms would be bankrupt or teetering on failure. Nevertheless, undeterred by the rising anger on Main Street and the populist backlash in Washington D.C., and flush with record revenues of $449.6 billion, Wall Street firms are on track to pay over $145 billion in bonuses for 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading "Wall Street Firms "Thumb Their Noses" at Taxpayers and Washington Politicians - Award Obscene Bonuses Anyway" »

There have been various developments over the past several weeks which investors may consider relevant in allocating their resources or evaluating alternatives that are available to them. Some of the more significant developments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the year at 10,428 and, on Monday, the market soared 156 points.

• On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 12 points.

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 11 more points and closed the week at 10,618.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - January 8, 2010" »

The Wall Street Journal reports that “hundreds of businesses are fighting to recover billions of dollars tied up in frozen auction-rates securities, a year after Wall Street firms agreed to $60 billion in settlements over the collapsed market for the investments.” See “Firms Fight Banks Over Billions in Frozen Notes,” WSJ 1/2/10. While regulators stepped in to help individual investors after the auctions froze in February 2008, many corporate and institutional investors did not benefit from settlements between banks, broker-dealers and the SEC, FINRA and state attorneys general. According to Atlanta attorney Craig T. Jones, investors were left holding about $330 billion in illiquid securities when the auctions froze, so $60 billion in settlements is only a drop in the bucket.”

Continue reading "The Auction Rate Securities Debacle Continues - Corporate America Takes on Wall Street" »

So many investors have lost money in investments mis-marketed under assurances the investment was “principal-protected,” or “capital guaranteed,” that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has found it necessary to issue a notice (Notice to Member 09-73) reminding brokerage firms of their sales practice duties when recommending investments such as so-called Principal Protected Notes. These securities are structured products that are typically comprised of a zero-coupon linked to the performance of some other asset. That asset might be, for example, a derivative product based on a stock index or a basket of securities as obscure as the Brazilian Real-U.S. Dollar exchange rate and the price of copper.

Continue reading "Regulators Express Concerns about "Principal-Protected" and "Capital Guaranteed" Investments" »

The SEC has begun to probe Bank of America’s failure to disclose increasing losses at Merrill Lynch prior to its acquisition. This development was reported just two months before the SEC ‘s scheduled trial against Bank of America for its failure to disclose controversial bonuses paid to Merrill employees.

Continue reading "SEC Expands Investigation of Merrill Lynch/Bank of America Transaction" »

If you were sold Main Street Natural Gas Bonds that were guaranteed by Lehman Brothers, you are likely to have a compelling claim to recover any losses that you sustained when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. These bonds were sold to income oriented investors as relatively safe investments. However, the brokerage firms that sold them, in many cases, did not do their homework. If they had, they would have realized that these bonds were totally inappropriate for almost any investor.

Continue reading "Investor Alert: Main Street Natural Gas Bonds Backed by Lehman Brothers" »

There have been various developments over the past several weeks which investors may consider relevant in allocating their resources or evaluating alternatives that are available to them. Some of the more significant developments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the week at 10,389 and, on Monday, the market rose 1 point.

• On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 104 points.

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded up 51 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 69 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66 points and closed the week at 10,472.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - December 11, 2009" »

A Columbia, South Carolina-based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel awarded damages to a South Carolina resident as a result of losses sustained in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. principal-protected notes sold to her by UBS. The panel awarded Patricia Flanagan $150,000 in compensatory damages, plus an additional $35,000 designated as costs, plus interest. Ms. Flanagan had requested compensatory damages in the amount of $300,000.00, plus interest, costs, expenses, attorney’s fees, expert witness fees, FINRA fees, and punitive damages. The Panel assessed $6,075.00 of the hearing session fees to Claimant and the same amount to be paid by UBS. No attorney’s fees, expert witness fees or punitive damages were awarded.

Continue reading "Investors in Lehman Principal-Protected Notes Have an Opportunity to Recoup Their Losses" »

Huge recruiting bonuses for brokers may bode ill for customers. Large brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney are offering some of the highest recruitment bonuses ever offered – up to 330% of their previous year's fees and commissions – to entice reps who rank among the top fifth of their firms' producers to come to work for them, reported Bruce Kelly in his November 15 InvestmentNews article, “Warring wirehouses add fuel to hiring fire.”

Continue reading "Wall Street Recruiting Packages Put Customers At Risk" »

Dow Corning Corp. has filed its second lawsuit in a month over losses suffered by the company due to auction rate securities. The latest Dow suit, filed against Merrill Lynch in federal court in New York, alleges that Merrill misled the company about the safety and liquidity of the auction rate securities market. According to the complaint filed by Dow’s lawyers, the company invested $166 million in failed auction rate securities due to Merrill’s misrepresentations between 2005 and 2008.

Continue reading "Dow Corning Files Another Auction Rate Securities Lawsuit" »

A recent InvestmentNews op-ed on September 27 endorsed Judge Jed Rakoff’s action in the Bank of America settlement process. Bank of America is accused of lying to shareholders about $5.8 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees immediately preceding a merger between the two companies. The Bank approved the bonuses but did not disclose the payment to shareholders.

Continue reading "The SEC Must Adopt an Aggressive Enforcement Program if it is to Restore its Credibility" »

Merrill Lynch has apparently pulled a fast one on unsuspecting brokers who thought they could resolve promissory note disputes with the firm through FINRA arbitration – it (cleverly) issued the notes through a non-member of FINRA and is now taking the brokers to court in New York, where the courts are generally business-friendly and inclined to grant summary judgment to promissory note holders. This according to Dan Jamieson in his recent article in InvestmentNews, “Merrill avoids arbitration in loan cases.”

Continue reading "Court or Arbitration - Brokerage Firms Want to have their Cake and Eat it Too" »

Wachovia Bank, JPMorgan and other major financial institutions have filed their second motion to dismiss a complaint brought against them by more than a dozen state and local governments alleging price-fixing and bid-rigging of municipal derivatives markets. This according to a recent article by Erin Fuchs in Law360 entitled “Banks Shoot To Kill Municipal Bond Antitrust MDL.” The MDL action, captioned In re: Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation, case number 1:08-md-01950, is pending in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Continue reading "Wall Street Firms Want a "Free Pass" for Ripping Off State and Municipal Governments" »

The New York Times recently reported that a Federal Judge rejected the proposed settlement between the SEC and Bank of America over the controversial bonuses paid out by the Bank. The settlement would have meant that the Bank paid a $33 million fine in exchange for neither admitting nor denying responsibility. Notably, Judge Jed Rakoff, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, unleashed a scathing attack on the SEC, saying, the settlement was a “contrivance designed to provide the SEC with the facade of enforcement.”

Continue reading "Judge Tells the SEC and Bank of America to Fight it out in Court" »

Federal judges are “throwing the book” at Wall Street fat cats who commit financial fraud, according to a September 8th article in Bloomberg.com by Cary O’Reilly and Linda Sandler entitled “Judges Punish Wall Street as Regulators Just Talk About
Reform.” Based on their rulings and comments, a growing number of federal judges are outraged with the culture of corruption on Wall Street that has brought our financial system to its knees, and disgusted with the apparent reluctance of regulators and Wall Street to institute meaningful reforms to prevent future disasters. With that in mind, and finding little in common with the defendants before them (most U.S. judges make less than a junior lawyer at a large law firm), these judges are taking matters into their own hands, issuing rulings that really send a message to those who might engage in similar misconduct.

Continue reading "Federal Judges are "Throwing the Book" at Securities Scoundrels- When are the Regulators Going to Join the Party?" »

There have been various developments over the past several weeks which investors may consider relevant in allocating their resources or evaluating alternatives that are available to them. Some of the more significant developments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the week at 9605 and, on Monday, moved up 22 points.

• On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57 points.

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 108 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 8 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 36 points and closed the week at 9820.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - September 18, 2009" »

A retired securities lawyer and his wife have filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina over losses they sustained as a result of investing in preferred stock auction rate securities issued by Nuveen Investments. Auction rate securities are debt instruments -- in this case preferred stock-- for which interest is regularly reset through a Dutch auction. Auction rate securities were once routinely marketed as safe, cash equivalents that were highly liquid, but the broker-dealers who sold them failed to disclose that liquidity was entirely dependent upon the success of the auction process, which was being artificially supported by the undisclosed participation of brokers bidding in auctions where they had an interest. The North Carolina suit alleges fraud and securities law violations at all levels, including claims against the issuers, the underwriters, and the broker-dealers who sold the securities and managed the auction process.

Continue reading "Investor Sues Nuveen, Merrill, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank over Auction Rate Securities" »