Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

In connection with the Medical Capital receivership, the SEC Receiver recently filed its “Proposed Plan for Distribution” (the “Plan”). Unfortunately, the Plan contains some disturbing news for those investors who were pro-active and obtained recoveries against third-parties through litigation (including class actions) or arbitration.

Continue reading "SEC Receiver Seeks to Deny Recovery to Many Medical Capital Investors" »

Investors who bought toxic mortgage-backed bonds from Bank of America’s Countrywide, and homeowners seeking loan modifications are proposing drastic measures to better enable BofA to deal with the onslaught of their litigation without a bankruptcy or a receivership imposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. According to a Reuters/CNBC.com article entitled “Will Bank of America Tale a Play Out of the Asbestos Handbook,” the proposed approaches include an asbestos litigation-style trust to deal with claims and litigation, a so-called “bad bank” managed by federal regulators, or the sale of litigation warrants by which public investors would purchase the right to receive whatever is left in a settlement trust. The bond investor litigants include American International Group (AIG) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, among others.

Continue reading "Bank of America Must Deal with Exposure of $50-$100 Billion Associated with Toxic Mortgages Securities" »

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $125 million to a group of pension funds to settle a class action filed by various public pension funds that purchased billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities believing their money was in AAA-backed investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article by David Benoit entitled “Wells Fargo Settles Pension-Fund Mortgage Suit.” The proposed settlement is subject to court approval.

Continue reading "Wells Fargo Settles Mortgage-Backed Securities Claims filed by Pension Funds" »

A Manhattan federal judge has consolidated securities class actions against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other affiliated persons (Goldman) and appointed three pension funds as co-lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit relating to a collateral debt obligation called Abacus, according to a Reuters article entitled “Pension funds to lead suit vs. Goldman over Abacus.” The class actions brought by purchasers of Goldman stock allege that Goldman officers and directors made false and misleading statements concerning its sale of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) known as Abacus 2007 AC-1 (Abacus).

Continue reading "Goldman's CDO Problems Continue" »

A suit filed in federal court in Atlanta by a former SunTrust Bank employee and 401(k) plan participant alleges that SunTrust violated federal retirement plan laws by selecting its own high-fee, poorly performing mutual funds for its 401(k) plan. See J. Scott Trubey’s article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution entitled “SunTrust faces suit over operation of 401(k).” The violations enriched SunTrust but cost plan participants more than $100 million dollars, according to the complaint.

Continue reading "SunTrust Sued For Alleged 401(k) Abuses" »

A federal judge has refused to approve a proposed class action settlement between Securities America and a class of people who purchased hundreds of millions of fraudulent securities issued by Medical Capital and Provident Royalties, that were sold by Securities America. See Dan Levine’s and Joseph Giannone’s article in Reuters captioned, “Judge rejects settlement with Ameriprise unit,” and Bruce Kelly’s InvestmentNews article, “CFO: Securities America on the brink without legal settlement.”

Continue reading "Judge Rejects Securities America's Attempts to Settle Class Actions Involving Medical Capital Notes and Provident Royalties Securities" »

In the current economic environment where banks and large financial institutions have received financial bailouts, cash strapped broker dealer Capital Financial Services, Inc. is seeking to get a legal bailout. Despite rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to the contrary and established judicial precedent favoring arbitration, Capital Financial, an independent broker dealer that sold $65.3 million in high risk private placements, is attempting to combine 36 separate arbitration claims and lawsuits as part of a class action settlement. Merging all of the pending litigation, that involves Capital Financial’s sales of Provident Royalties’ private placement offering could potentially let Capital Financial off the hook for millions in damages and legal fees.

Continue reading "Broker/Dealer Capital Financial Attempts to Circumvent the Arbitration Process and the Bankruptcy Laws" »

Wall Street may face a wave of lawsuits under an expanded version of the Martin Act, New York’s securities anti-fraud statute, if the newly elected Governor of New York has his way, according to a Wall Street Journal Deal Journal blog entitled, “And the Next Mortal Threat to Wall Street Is…”.

Continue reading "Proposed Changes to New York Law Would Make Wall Street More Accountable" »

A United States District Court judge has ruled that a class action may proceed against Citigroup and others for making an array of material misrepresentations and omissions in public offering materials associated with bonds purchased by the plaintiffs (Reuters, “Judge Rules Bondholders Can Pursue Citigroup Suit,” July 12, 2010).

Continue reading "Bondholders Sue Citigroup for Misrepresntations Regarding CDOs and Other Toxic Securities" »

In response to recent concerns over high-risk private offerings such as Medical Capital and Provident Royalties, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a Notice to Members (NTM-10-22) that reminds brokerage firms of their obligations to investigate private placements before allowing their representatives to sell those investment products. However, FINRA only regulates registered broker-dealers, and many such offerings are recommended or sold by financial advisory firms that are not FINRA-registered.

Continue reading "Problems Involving Private Offerings Escalate" »

On April 8, 2010, the Wall Street Journal ran an article under the headline “Banks Winning When Investors Sue.” However, that article only told part of the story.

According to Craig T. Jones, a lawyer who represents investors at the Atlanta law firm of Page Perry LLC, “the Journal article was focused on lawsuits filed in court, primarily class actions in federal court. But the vast majority of individual investors who make claims against banks and broker-dealers do so in arbitration, and investors have won a higher percentage of securities arbitrations over the past year than they have in years past.” Jones, whose firm handles investment fraud cases all over the country, points out that recent changes in federal law have made it more difficult to sue in federal court, and class action reform legislation over the last several years has made it tougher for investors to bring such cases. “Big class actions get a lot of press,” says Jones, “and a disproportionate number of those have been thrown out on technical grounds due to new procedural requirements, but getting a case thrown out on a technicality should not be taken as a vindication of the banking industry for the abuses that led up to the financial crisis.”

Continue reading " Investors Are Winning Cases Against Wall Street Banks" »

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitrator awarded damages to Mr. Weigel as a result of losses sustained in the Schwab YieldPlus Fund. The panel awarded the Mr. Weigel $19,400 in a claim submitted under FINRA’s special “simplified” procedure for claims of $25,000 or less (exclusive of interest and costs). Mr. Weigel’s actual trading loss in Schwab YieldPlus Fund was $22,279 while his net out of pocket loss was $15,359. In a simplified claim, a single arbitrator decides the case based on the paper submissions of the parties without an in-person hearing.

Continue reading "The Beat Goes On - Schwab Loses Another Schwab YieldPlus Case" »

Time is running out for Schwab YieldPlus investors to opt out of the class action. A properly completed Request for Exclusion must be received by the class action administrator no later than December 28, 2009. With the holidays, the time to do that is running very short.

Continue reading "Less Than 15 Days are Left for Schwab YieldPlus Investors to Preserve their Rights" »

A federal court recently certified a class action against Charles Schwab & Company, Inc. brought on behalf of investors in the Schwab YieldPlus Fund. The certification means that the lawsuit can proceed as a class action; no settlement has been reached. Most importantly for YieldPlus investors with significant losses, the deadline to be excluded from this class action is December 28, 2009.

Continue reading "Only 40 Days Left for Schwab YieldPlus Investors to Preserve their Rights" »

The Receiver for Medical Capital Holdings Inc. issued his Third Report on October 9, 2009. The most recent report did contain some additional information but was, in most part, a recap of what was included in the Second Report. The reports can be found at http://www.medicalcapitalreceivership.com. Nothing in the Third Report indicates any greater likelihood of recovery for investors directly from Medical Capital. As indicated in the reports, out of the 104 medical accounts receivable clients listed, 53 of the accounts, totaling some $542,894,528, appear to no longer exist.

Continue reading "Medical Capital Holdings Alert - Investors Face Tremendous Losses" »

A federal court recently certified a class action against Charles Schwab & Company, Inc. brought on behalf of investors in the Schwab YieldPlus Fund. The certification means that the lawsuit can proceed as a class action; no settlement has been reached. Most importantly for YieldPlus investors with significant losses, the deadline to be excluded from this class action is December 28, 2009. Otherwise, YieldPlus investors who happen to be class members (i.e., who purchased the YieldPlus Fund within certain dates) are automatically included and will be bound by any settlement that may be reached.

Continue reading "Time is Running Out on Schwab YieldPlus Investors who Want to Opt Out of the Class Action " »

There has recently been a spate of litigation and regulatory activity surrounding exchange-traded funds (ETF’s), particularly leveraged or inverse ETF’s. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have issued warnings that leveraged and inverse exchange ETF’s are not suitable for most retail investors, and at least one state has announced an investigation into the sales practices of ETF’s. More recently, several class actions have been filed against specific EFT providers, notably ProShares Trust, which is one of the largest providers of leveraged and inverse ETF’s.

Continue reading "Have You Lost Money in ETF's?" »

Investors in Charles Schwab’s YieldPlus Fund need to be aware of their options in light of the recent certification of a class action brought by YieldPlus investors against Schwab. Most importantly, YieldPlus investors who are class members need to request exclusion from the class if they wish to maintain individual claims against Charles Schwab (even if those claims are already filed). Requests for exclusion must be properly filed and received by the claims administrator no later than Monday, December 28, 2009.

Continue reading "Schwab YieldPlus Investors Should Consider Their Options" »

A federal judge in Atlanta recently dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against SunTrust for fraud in the sale of auction rate securities. The case was not dismissed on the merits of investors’ claims against SunTrust, but based on technical legal requirements about what it takes to plead a claim. Those requirements are strict in securities fraud cases that get filed in federal court, especially class actions, but they do not apply to cases that get filed in arbitration.

Continue reading "Arbitration or Class Action - Which is Better for Investors?" »

The threatened SEC enforcement action against The Charles Schwab Corp. relating to sales of its YieldPlus Fund increases the likelihood that Schwab will need to settle a class action and FINRA arbitrations involving the YieldPlus Fund, according to industry analysts, as reported by Bruce Kelly on October 18 in InvestmentNews. On October 14, Schwab disclosed that it had received a Wells notice from the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the staff intends to recommend the filing of a civil enforcement action against Schwab Investments, Charles Schwab Investment Management, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and the president of the funds for possible violations of the securities laws with respect to the Schwab YieldPlus Fund and the Schwab Total Bond Market Fund.

Continue reading "SEC Threatens Action Over Schwab YieldPlus Fund" »