Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

Last week, in an almost unprecedented manner, three groups of securities regulators – the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and various state regulators – almost simultaneously filed enforcement actions against Morgan Keegan for fraud arising out of its sales of 6 toxic bond funds. The regulatory investigations had been going on for several years. The allegations in the regulatory actions are quite serious and sound in egregious fraud.

Continue reading "Regulatory Actions Against Morgan Keegan Raise Grave Doubts about the FINRA Arbitration Process" »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Morgan Keegan and its touted managing director, James Kelsoe, with securities fraud for deliberately inflating the value of subprime securities in order to hide losses in Morgan Keegan’s proprietary toxic bond mutual funds. See Joe Bel Bruno’s recent Wall Street Journal article, “Morgan Keegan and Its Onetime Star Kelsoe Charged by SEC.”

Continue reading "Regulators Sue Morgan Keegan Over Toxic Bond Funds" »

In two recently decided arbitrations against Morgan Keegan related to its collapsed bond funds, the investors were awarded over $3.6 million, according to an article by Christopher Sheffield in the Memphis Business Journal, “Morgan Keegan pays out $3.6 million in February.”

Continue reading "Sophisticated Investors Win Millions in Toxic Bond Fund Cases Against Morgan Keegan" »

Morgan Keegan has been aggressively fighting an array of regulatory actions and investor claims. As a result of these "hardball" defense tactics, Morgan Keegan's legal costs have doubled and are consuming a significant chunk of the firm's revenue as a result of investigations by securities regulators and legal actions by aggrieved investors, according to an Feb. 25 article in InvestmentNews by Bruce Kelly.

Continue reading "Morgan Keegan's Legal Costs Soar Under an Avalanche of Claims" »

A Memphis, Tennessee Chancery court has vacated an award in favor of an investor that was issued by a FINRA arbitration panel in a Morgan Keegan bond fund case. Vacatur of an arbitration award is highly unusual, and should not occur without proof of some corruption in the process, such as evident partiality of an arbitrator. The reason given by the Tennessee court was that two of the arbitrators were “biased” because they had previously ruled against Morgan Keegan in another Morgan Keegan bond fund case.

Continue reading "Tennessee State Court Ruling Undermines Securities Arbitration" »

Regions Bank has agreed to pay $1 million to settle investment fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a September 21 article by AP Legal Affairs writer Curt Anderson. On September 21, the SEC issued a Cease-and-Desist Order finding that Regions, the primary banking subsidiary of Regions Financial Corporation, was a cause of U.S. Pension Trust Corp.'s and U.S. College Trust Corp.'s (collectively, USPT) violations of federal securities laws.

Continue reading "Regions Bank's SEC Problems Grow" »

In her August 4th Wall Street Journal column called Compliance Watch, Suzanne Barlyn reports that Morgan Keegan is engaging in a rarely used hardball tactics in three arbitrations arising out of sales of its proprietary bond mutual funds in which arbitration panels have awards. So far, Morgan Keegan has moved to vacate awards issued in three cases involving more than $1 million in damages, attorneys’ fees and costs.

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"For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Thus hinteth today’s Wall Street Journal article by Suzanne Barlyn entitled “COMPLIANCE WATCH: SEC Warning May Help Unhappy Investors.”

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) Staff’s warning that it intends to recommend an enforcement action against Morgan Keegan for possible violations of the federal securities laws may incline more arbitrators to require Morgan Keegan to disclose documents it supplied to the SEC in its investigation, but wants to keep hidden from investors and arbitrators, according to the article. Here is the background.

Continue reading "It's Time for Arbitrators to Grant Investors Access to the SEC Evidence that Morgan Keegan Is Trying to Hide" »

On July 9, 2009, Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. (“Morgan Keegan”) (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Regions Financial Corporation), Morgan Asset Management, Inc. and three employees, each received a “Wells” notice from the Staff of the Atlanta Regional Office of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) stating that the SEC Staff intends to recommend that the SEC bring enforcement actions for possible violations of the federal securities laws. The potential actions relate to the SEC’s investigation of certain mutual funds formerly managed by Morgan Keegan and Morgan Asset Management. Morgan Keegan received another Wells Notice earlier this year related to its unlawful sales practices in connection with sales of auction rate securities.

Continue reading "SEC Notifies Morgan Keegan of Intent to Recommend Enforcement Action Involving Toxic Mutual Funds" »

Evergreen Investment Management Company (“Evergreen”), a unit of Wells Fargo & Co., has agreed to pay more than $40 million to settle an enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Massachusetts Securities Division, according to articles in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Evergreen was a subsidiary of Wachovia at the time of the violation, according to Reuters.

Continue reading "Evergreen Pays Over $40 Million to Settle SEC Charges that it Overvalued Mortgage-Backed Investments" »

Citigroup and the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are discussing possible settlement of an investigation into whether Citigroup overvalued billions of dollars of subprime mortgage-backed securities on its books in the latter part of 2007, according Susan Pulliam and Randall Smith of the Wall Street Journal in a May 28, 209 article entitled “Citi, SEC Are in Talks to Settle Probe.” The investigation followed a series of events that led to the resignation of CEO Charles Prince and the reporting of approximately $50 billion in overall losses, mostly due to its subprime mortgage-backed holdings. In October 2007, Citigroup reported a $1.83 billion loss of value in its subprime mortgage-backed securities. Weeks later, Citigroup reported that the loss of value was more like $8 to $11 billion, and also that it held far more subprime mortgage-backed securities than it had previously reported. The investigation centers on the validity of Citigroup’s valuation methods and whether it misled the investing public when there was no market to set prices for these non-conventional and complex assets.

Continue reading "Addressing Recent Wall Street Misconduct Requires The SEC to Adopt Creative Approaches" »

The SEC has taken action that should send shivers up the spines of many of Wall Street investment banks. The SEC recently charged 10 brokers associated with the now-defunct Brookstreet Securities Corp. (out of Irvine, California) with fraud for falsely marketing investments in complex derivative securities backed by mortgages as safe and suitable for retirees and as appropriate for those with conservative investment goals. In particular, the defendants portrayed risky collateralized mortgage obligations as safe investments to more than 750 customers. The customers subsequently incurred over $35 million in losses investing in these “low risk” investments. Seven of the ten brokers were based in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the others were based in Hawaii, Oregon, and Montana. FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has brought a similar complaint alleging fraud against six other former Brookstreet brokers.

Continue reading "Is the SEC Willing to Sue the "Big Boys" for Misleading the Public Regarding the Risks of Structured Finance Securities?" »

The news just doesn’t seem to be getting any better for Regions Financial Corp. An Alabama Judge recently filed a shareholder derivative suit in Jefferson County Alabama against the top executives and board of directors of Regions Financial Corp. The suit alleges that the defendants’ mismanagement led to the huge losses suffered by the company and its shareholders.

Continue reading "Alabama Judge Files Shareholder Derivative Action Against Regions' Executives" »

Morgan Keegan's problems seem to keep growing. Already facing massive claims over its sale of toxic bond funds, the company is now being confronted with auction rate securities problems. According to an article published by Reuters, the SEC may begin a civil proceeding against the Morgan Keegan & Co brokerage unit of Regions Financial Corp. over the alleged improper sale of auction-rate securities.

Continue reading "Auction Rate Securities - Morgan Keegan's Latest Problem" »

Morgan Keegan recently suffered two more arbitration losses related to its collapsed bond funds. On April 23, 2009 an arbitration panel in Alabama awarded two investors compensatory damages totaling over $76,000 as well as an award of costs in connection with losses they suffered as a result of an investment in the Morgan Keegan bond funds. Four days later, an arbitration panel in Kentucky awarded an investor in the Morgan Keegan funds $67,860 in compensatory damages, $16,828 in interest and $30,428 in attorneys’ fees.

Continue reading "Morgan Keegan Loses Two More Toxic Bond Fund Cases" »

Morgan Keegan recently suffered it sixth straight loss in arbitration related to its collapsed bond funds. Jerome Woods, who played defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs, recently received an arbitration award of $950,000 in connection with losses he suffered as a result of an investment in the Morgan Keegan bond funds. A review of the award also indicates that one of the arbitrators on the panel felt compelled to file a dissenting opinion indicating the evidence supported an even greater monetary award. The award to Mr. Woods brings the total awarded to investors harmed by the funds to a total of more than $1.6 million over the past two months.

Continue reading "Morgan Keegan Hit for $950,000 Loss on Toxic Bond Fund Case" »

Tax time is an excellent time for investors to evaluate their investments, to determine whether their investments have been appropriately handled, and to reevaluate their investment objectives and risk tolerance. Taxpayers or their accountants have assembled and are reviewing (or have already reviewed) a number of financial documents in preparation for the filing of income tax returns. Investors should carefully review the status of their investments and their asset allocation to determine whether these items are in accordance with their objectives and status in life.

Continue reading "Now is the Best Time to Review your Investment Portfolio" »

Another investor received an arbitration award last week in connection with losses suffered as a result of an investment in the Morgan Keegan bond funds. Last week, an arbitration panel in San Francisco awarded an investor $267, 711 plus interest as a result of an investment in the collapsed funds. The award in San Francisco follows a series of recent awards made to investors who suffered tremendous losses when the Morgan Keegan bond funds collapsed.

Continue reading "The News Continues to get Worse for Morgan Keegan and its Toxic Bond Funds" »

News stories and congressional inquiries into financial scams perpetrated by Madoff, Stanford and others have shined a light on the problem of lax enforcement of securities laws and rules by regulators. Recent trends suggest that arbitrators, however, are increasingly cognizant of their importance in the process of requiring financial firms to comply with applicable securities laws and rules, and protecting victims of firms that do not comply.

Continue reading "Arbitrators Have an Important Role in Keeping the Financial Markets Honest" »

A Birmingham, Alabama FINRA arbitration panel recently awarded $187,000 to a retired cattle farmer from York, Alabama for losses suffered as a result of misconduct associated with the sale of Morgan Keegan bond funds. At issue were the representations and disclosures made in selling seven former Regions Morgan Keegan bond funds that have lost 90 percent of their value since mid-2007.

Continue reading "Arbitration Panel Compensates Investor for Losses Sustained in Morgan Keegan Bond Funds" »