In a May 7th., 2013 article from FINRA’s website, it was reported that according to the FBI’s latest Financial Crimes Report to the Public, investment fraud has increased by 52 percent since 2008. Unfortunately, investment fraud is largely underreported, and often targeted are retired citizens and seniors. 77 million baby boomers will be retiring over the next 20 years, and incidences of investment fraud are likely to increase further.

It was announced in response to this trend that the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation are partnering to help reduce investment fraud among consumers. The two organizations will establish Investment Fraud Prevention Programs at the state level through NCPC’s network of state crime prevention associations. The partnership will allow law enforcement officers to become more familiar with “Outsmarting Investment Fraud” tools, so that they are better equipped to address investment fraud in their communities. Investors will gain increased skills to prevent and report investment fraud.

The NCPC and the FINRA Foundation will be providing investment fraud educational materials free of charge to a vast network of law enforcement personnel and crime prevention practitioners across the nation. Working with partners, including AARP and the Consumer Fraud Research Group, the FINRA Foundation has conducted extensive research exploring why people fall prey to investment fraud and who is most often targeted. With the information gathered from its research, the Foundation has employed national, state, and grassroots partnerships to develop and distribute fraud prevention resources and conduct outreach to potential investors.

If you have experienced a financial loss due to your stockbroker or financial advisor’s recommendations, call Soreide Law Group for a free consultation with an attorney at: 888-760-6552.

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The following information is from FINRA’s website under “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions, February, 2013.”

Martin Benjamin Feibish (CRD #205556, Registered Representative, Providence, Rhode Island)

was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Feibish consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he developed a scheme to misappropriate more than $5 million from an elderly customer by investing her money in fictitious investment vehicles, and forging her relatives’ signatures.

According to FINRA, Feibish created false promissory notes through the company, which evidenced a purported interest in mortgage-backed securities. Feibish created and provided the customer with false documentation evidencing the purported mortgage-backed securities and IRS Form 1099s, to convince the customer that she was invested in legitimate investment vehicles. Feibish took funds from the customer for the non-existent investments and placed them in a bank account he controlled in his company’s name.

The findings also included that Feibish had checks issued from the company bank account to the customer. Feibish told the customer that these payments represented the interest payments from the investments, but were actually the return of the customer’s own money. Feibish convinced the customer to reinvest the money in additional fictitious investment vehicles, including promissory notes from a bank.

FINRA found that Feibish forged the names of the customer and her relatives to open trust accounts in their names at the bank. Payments were simply a return of the customer’s money.

FINRA also found that Feibish managed insurance plans belonging to the customer, and for the benefit of her
relatives. Feibish told the customer he was paying the premiums on those policies, when in fact he had forged the relatives’ signatures and borrowed approximately $280,000 against them. Feibish routinely had false documentation issued to the customer, including false promissory notes and falsified account statements.

FINRA Case #2011026750303

This ends the information from FINRA’s website.

If you find yourself in a similar situation with your broker or financial advisor, call Soreide Law Group for a free consultation with an attorney, 888-760-6552, or visit our website at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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Nicholas Rowe and his firm, Focus Capital Wealth Management, Inc. of Bedford, New Hampshire, were found liable in a case alleging negligence, civil fraud, and other misdeeds, involving the sale of risky ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) to nine investors, according to a ruling by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel. Some of these investors were in their fifties and sixties, including two widows. Rowe was ordered to pay $1.8 million to the investors.

The Reuters article goes on to explain that leveraged and inverse ETFs were designed to amplify short-term returns by using debt and derivatives and are considered more suitable for professional traders than for long-term investors or anyone does not want a high-risk portfolio. In 2009, FINRA and other regulators began issuing warnings about the sale of leveraged and inverse ETFs because they worried that brokers were selling them to buy-and-hold investors – a strategy likely to cause heavy losses.

The Reuters article says that FINRA arbitration may be the last hope for some investors whose advisers guided them to leveraged and inverse ETFs and then mismanaged the investments.

Investors in the Rowe case were all heavily concentrated in leveraged and inverse ETFs. That strategy is nearly guaranteed to lead to losses, since the investments effectively require betting on whether the market is going up or down.

Securities Lawyer, Lars K. Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, PLLC, represents clients nationwide. If you invested with Nicholas Rowe or Focus Capital Wealth Management, Inc., or had losses in other leveraged and inverse ETFs, call: 888-760-6552, or you may visit our website and complete the online form at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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Recently, a New York City man working as a broker/dealer in Stamford, Connecticut, has been charged with securities fraud, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney David B. Fein’s office.

Jesse Litvak, 38, while working in the Stamford office of Jefferies & Co., is suspected of scheming to defraud by misrepresenting transactions either with the seller’s asking price to the buyer, or the buyer’s price to the seller, the release said. The difference in the price paid would be kept for Jefferies, the release said.

The release also said that he is suspected of misrepresenting bonds to buyers in Jefferies inventory by offering them for sale by third parties he made up, the release said. If he did this he was then able to charge the buyer an extra commission, the release said.

Jesse Litvak is suspected of doing this with residential mortgage-based securities, and allegedly defrauded six Securities Public-Private Investment Program funds and multiple private funds for $2 million, the release said. Litvak was also was charged with 11 counts of securities fraud, one count of Troubled Asset Relief Program fraud, and four counts of making false statements to the federal government, the release said.

If you feel you have been involved in this or any other rip-off to the investors by broker/dealers, call Lars Soreide of Soreide Law Group, PLLC, for a free consultation on how to potentially recover your losses. To speak with an attorney call 888-760-6552, or visit our website and complete our online form at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2013, Matthew Heimer writes that ever since the Federal Reserve started pushing interest rates to new lows, it’s been a common theme for retirees and other conservative investors accepting more risk to get a decent income from their portfolios. Last week LPL Financial Holdings agreed with state regulators to pay $2.5 million in fines and restitution for improperly supervising brokers who sold non-traded real estate investment trusts. (LPL neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.) Non-traded REITs are high-yielding and popular – assets invested in the product have jumped about 50% since 2009, to $65 billion. But they’re for investors to track and value, since they don’t trade on public exchanges.

As Nathaniel Popper reports this week in the New York Times, opaque investments are becoming increasingly popular with less-sophisticated investors, leaving the investors overexposed to risks they don’t understand or vulnerable to fraud. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently issued a notice expressing concern about products like these that could prove “potentially unsuitable and otherwise problematic for retail investors.” Other investments on FINRA’s list include business development companies, which invest in the debt of small privately held businesses, and private placement securities, which represent direct investments in such firms.

If you sustained investment losses due to your stock broker or financial advisor’s recommendations regarding non-traded REITs, private placements, or other complex products, call for a free consultation on how to potentially recover your losses. To speak with an attorney call 888-760-6552, or visit our website and complete our online form at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

Soreide Law Group, PLLC., representing investors nationwide before FINRA the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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The following information is from FINRA’s website under “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions, January, 2013.”

Kenneth Andrew Mauchin (CRD #2366345, Registered Principal, Sanford, Florida)

was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he misappropriated $23,750 from elderly customers’ accounts by converting their funds to cashier’s checks and depositing those checks into a bank account of an entity he controlled.

FINRA’s complaint alleges that Mauchin did so without the customers’ knowledge or authorization. The complaint also alleges that Mauchin prepared a customer’s application for a variable annuity and falsely listed his bank branch office address as the customer’s mailing address, which he knew to be false.

Also, a customer applied for a premiere select IRA brokerage account with Mauchin’s firm and, without the customer’s knowledge or authorization, he falsely listed his bank branch office address as the customer’s mailing address, which he knew to be false. These applications became part of the firm’s books and records, causing his firm’s books and records to be false.

This complaint further alleges that Mauchin failed to appear for FINRA testimony.
(FINRA Case #2011028452701)

This ends the information from FINRA’s website.

Securities Lawyer, Lars K. Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, represents clients nationwide before FINRA. If you or a loved one have sustained investment losses due to your stock broker or financial advisor’s recommendations, call for a free consultation on how to potentially recover your losses. To speak with an attorney call 888-760-6552, or visit our website at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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The following article appeared in the “Tewksbury Advocate:”

“Tewksbury scam victims win $155,250 settlement
By Steve Adams

GateHouse News Service

Tewksbury —

A Tewksbury couple who lost $255,000 to a Quincy financial adviser’s investment scam have won a $155,250 settlement.

An arbitrator ruled last week that Harvest Financial LLC must repay a Tewksbury couple because it was negligent in supervising the activities of Gregg Rennie, who was convicted of securities fraud in 2010.

Rennie worked at the company’s Providence office from May 2007 until July 2008.

“The firm has a responsibility to supervise their registered personnel,” said attorney Lars Soreide of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Rennie was hired in a managerial role to recruit more representatives, Soreide added.

“That put more of a burden on Harvest Capital to do more due diligence into his background,” he said.

The lawsuit, filed in 2011, argued that Harvest Financial was negligent in failing to supervise Rennie’s dealings with clients.

Soreide’s clients, Dominic and Annette Mancini of Tewksbury, had to postpone their retirement for 10 years after losing their nest egg, he said. The couple invested with Rennie after hearing his financial advice show on local radio stations.

Rennie sold bogus federal “housing certificates” guaranteeing double-digit returns to clients and used the money to pay for personal expenses and to prop up a failing condo project in Quincy. His other victims included an 80-year-old man who lost the bulk of his life’s savings, and a congregation saving up to build a new church.

In 2010, he pled guilty to 14 counts of securities fraud and wire fraud in U.S. District Court. A judge sentenced Rennie, 46, to seven years in prison and ordered him to repay $3.8 million to his victims.

“My clients were part of that restitution order and they haven’t received one penny, and I don’t imagine anyone has,” Soreide said.

Attorneys for Wethersfield, Conn.-based Harvest Capital argued that the company was not aware of Rennie’s transactions and that Rennie concealed his illegal activities from his broker-dealer.

“Harvest Capital is as much a victim of Mr. Rennie as the claimants themselves,” wrote attorney W. Bradford Bernadt.

Rennie was not an employee, but a registered representative, according to the company’s court filings.

On Sept. 26, an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered Harvest to pay the Mancini’s $158,250 in restitution, or approximately half the amount they requested.

Rennie, 46, is scheduled to be released from a federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J. in 2016.”
End of article.

The Claimants, although Massachusetts residents, hired Florida-based firm, Soreide Law Group, PLLC, headed by Massachusetts native, Lars Soreide. The Claimants located the firm though the firm’s website: http://www.securitieslawyer.com. Soreide Law Group handles FINRA arbitrations and mediations for investors nationwide and can be reached at (888) 760-6552.

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Securities Lawyer, Lars Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, is currently investigating Gramercy Securities, Inc. This brokerage has been alleged to have placed unsophisticated investors’ money into unsuitable investments. There have been claims, for example, of a recent widow losing her entire net worth by investing in risky private placements. Some of these risky private placements were in the Inland American Real Estate Investment Trust, LaeRoc Edge Funds, and Arciterra Whitefish Opportunity Fund.

LaeRoc funds are real estate private placements. LaeRoc Partners is a real estate investment firm managing over $650 million in assets. The LaeRoc private placement was promoted by brokers as a safe or conservative investment. These representations allegedly were misleading.

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, represents clients nationwide. Call for a free consultation on how to potentially recover your private placement financial losses. To speak with an attorney call 888-760-6552, or visit our website at: http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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Securities Attorney, Lars Soreide, of Soreide Law Group was recently quoted in an article from the Reno Gazette-Journal, written by Jaclyn O’Malley regarding former broker Gary Harrison Lane. The quote reads as follows:

“Florida securities attorney Lars Soreide said Tuesday he has represented a few clients who have recently settled with broker firms connected to Lane, that he accused of negligently superivising Lane’s activities and “selling away” investments. He said he could not give specifics because the civil cases were resolved under confidential agreements. Soreide said had the brokers properly supervised Lane, they would have uncovered the fraud.”

Soreide Law Group first brought attention to Gary Lane in the website blog entitled, “ATTENTION CLIENTS OF GARY LANE,” dated October 7, 2011. Since then, Lane was indited on federal charges. The above article from the website blog listing the award for Mr. Soreide’s clients, was dated September 5, 2011.

Gary Harrison Lane had worked for Banc of America Investment Services in Reno, Nevada, from July 1999 through October 2009 and for Merrill Lynch in Reno, Nevada, from October 2009 through March 2011, where he was terminated for the alleged improprieties. Lane allegedly targeted inexperienced investors, and the elderly. He is accused of a Ponzi scheme which had bilked his clients over $2 million.

Securities Attorney, Lars Soreide, successfully settled the claims in favor of his clients though a FINRA arbitration.

If you or a loved one experienced financial losses because of Gary Harrison Lane, call Soreide Law Group, and speak to an attorney regarding potential recovery of YOUR losses. Please call 888-760-6552 or visit us on the web at http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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Donald Dean Horras CRD# 1056123

Soreide Law Group is investigating claims on behalf of investors who were clients of Ft. Lauderdale broker, Donald Horras, who was with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, and according to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, is currently with Raymond James and Associates of Ft. Lauderdale. Allegedly, Donald Horras, made unsuitable recommendations to elderly customers resulting in financial losses.

Horras is alleged to have recommended variable annuities that were inappropriate for the elderly clients’ portfolios and resulted in the loss of their retirement savings.

On FINRA’s BrokerCheck, Donald Horras’ record shows several client complaints, primarily relating to the sale of annuities.

If you or a family member were sold variable annuities by Donald Dean Horras and experienced financial losses, contact an attorney at Soreide Law Group for a free consultation on how to recover your investment losses. To speak with an attorney, call 888-760-6552, or visit http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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