Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced a $2.75 million settlement with a former top executive at UBS over allegations that he used insider information to sell his auction rate securities just before the market for such securities collapsed. According to prosecutors in Cuomo’s office, the executive in question was UBS’s global head of municipal securities and was in charge of fixed income investments for the bank’s American operations when he decided to close his positions in auction rate securities in December 2007 because he heard that the market for student loan-based auction rate securities was about to fail—and he did so without warning investors of the increased risks of such securities.

Continue reading "Former UBS Executive Settles Regulatory Auction Rate Securities Action" »

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" »

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" »

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" »

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 9,713 and, on Monday, the market jumped 77 points.

• On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 18 points.

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 204 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17 points and closed the week at 10,023.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - November 6, 2009" »

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 9820 and, on Monday, fell 41 points.

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

• On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 81 points.

• On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 41 points.

• On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 42 points and closed the week at 9665.

Continue reading "Page Perry's Market Monitor - September 25, 2009" »

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" »

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 hedge fund has sued Swiss banking giant UBS in Connecticut state court for unloading risky collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) on the eve of the financial crisis without disclosing that the CDOs were about to be downgraded and would eventually become “toxic waste. “ So far the Connecticut court has allowed the case to proceed in order to give the plaintiffs an opportunity to prove their allegations and has required UBS to post a bond sufficient to cover a $35 million judgment in the event that it loses the case.

Continue reading "Hedge Fund Sues UBS for Selling "Crap" and "Vomit"" »

Investors are bringing an increasing number of legal claims against brokerage firms as a result of inappropriate sales of preferred stocks issued by financial institutions. For example, Merrill Lynch has been hit with an arbitration claim filed by an elderly couple that lost $650,000 in the preferred stocks of financial companies according to Sue Asci in her August 16 article in InvestmentNews called “Merrill Lynch confronts arbitration claim involving financials’ preferred stock.” The claim, filed with FINRA, alleges that Merrill engaged in fraudulent sales practices, including self-dealing (more on that below).

Continue reading "More Investor Claims Focus on Sales of Preferred Stocks Issued by Financial Institutions" »

In her recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Eleanor Laise reports that sales of Leveraged and Inverse Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have exploded to $32.8 billion as of June 2009, almost tripling the $11 billion held at the start of 2008. The number of such ETFs has increased to 119, an increase of 86%, over the same period. “The explosive growth in this area over the past year reflects an aggressive sales effort,” said William F. Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. These products are unsuitable for and should not have been sold to most investors.

Continue reading "Regulators Investigate Sales of Leveraged and Inverse ETFs" »

UBS, the Swiss banking giant, allegedly duped a 77-year-old Chinese woman, who speaks no English and did not finish primary school, into buying high-risk, leveraged derivatives called “accumulators” that tanked in the global crisis, causing her to lose the equivalent of nearly $26 million, according to the woman’s attorney, as reported by CNBC.com.

Continue reading "Senior Citizen Accuses UBS of $26 Million Fraud" »

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, an important Wall Street lobbying group, has decided to support the Obama administration’s proposal to hold brokers to the same standard as a fiduciary when they provide investment advice, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. While investors who sue their brokers have long argued, with considerable success, that a fiduciary duty arises whenever there is a relationship of trust and confidence between broker and investor, that determination is presently made on a case by case basis under laws that vary from state to state. A federal standard, which is more likely to pass now that it has been endorsed by the industry, would make it easier for investors to prevail in claims against brokers.

Continue reading "Wall Street Trade Association Supports Fiduciary Standard" »

UBS is said to favor a shake-up of management rather than a sale of its U.S. wealth management business, according to the Financial Times. UBS’s U.S. wealth management business consists largely of Paine Webber, which it acquired in 2000. UBS, reportedly considering the sale of Paine Webber to raise capital, discussed a possible sale with Morgan Stanley late last year. Those talks were unsuccessful.

Continue reading "UBS Will Retain Its Wealth Management Business For The Time Being" »

San Francisco-based Bank of the West has accused UBS of manipulating rights associated with collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) in a manner that defrauded Bank of the West and caused it to lose $95 million. Specifically, Bank of the West alleges that the Swiss banking giant secretly purchased and retained the senior controlling notes of approximately $1.3 billion in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and then entered into credit default swaps with another collateralized debt obligation UBS had created called "TABS 2007-7." According to the complaint, this maneuver gave UBS a dual role as credit default swap counterparty and owner of the senior notes and gave UBS a financial incentive to demand liquidation of TABS, thereby forcing TABS to pay UBS as the credit default swap counterparty. After establishing this "scheme" in which Bank of the West invested over $95 million, UBS relied on a “highly questionable” event of default to liquidate the CDO at what Bank of the West contends were low prices and to seize Bank of the West's $95 million investment and over $900 million that others had invested in TABS.

Continue reading "UBS Sued For CDO Scam" »

UBS marketed and sold Lehman “structured notes” to ordinary retail investors. It instructed its brokers that the products were suitable for conservative investors who did not want to put their principal at risk. Investors who purchased these structured notes made a loan to Lehman Brothers and received a promissory note that promised that the value of notes would increase according to some formula if an underlying basket of securities increased, but the investor’s principal would never go down, even if the underlying securities tanked, because the notes came with a guaranty of “100% principal protection.” “If you lent me $100 and I drew up a legal documents that said in big, fat letters that you loan to me came with “100% principal protection,” as long as you stuck with our deal for 15 years, would you feel pretty good about getting your money back in 2024?” asks Susan Antilla of Bloomberg, in her June 10, 2009 article entitled “UBS Redefines Meaning of 100% Loss Protected.”

Continue reading ""100% Principal Protected Notes" - Designed to Deceive?" »

A new wave of lawsuits and arbitrations are being filed on behalf of investors who purchased auction rate securities but have not been eligible to participate in redemptions offered by big banks as a result of regulatory settlements. See article entitled “’Stranded’ ARS investors sue for a share of pie” by Jed Horowitz in the May 24, 2009 edition of InvestmentNews. These stranded investors purchased auction rate securities from “downstream” broker-dealers who sold but did not underwrite auction rate securities. The firms include Raymond James Financial Inc., Oppenheimer Holdings Inc., E*Trade Financial Corp., and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., which were among the biggest distributors of auction rate securities, according to the article.

Continue reading "Investors Left Out of the Auction Rate Securities Regulatory Settlements Are Suing to Recover Losses" »