Soreide Law Group, Securities Arbitration Law Firm (888) 760-6552, recently obtained this information from the FINRA website under “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions, March, 2013.”

Paul Grover Gomez (CRD #702551, Registered Representative, El Toro, California)

was fined $75,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for three months. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Gomez consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of
findings that his options recommendations to customers were unsuitable based on their investment objectives, financial situations and needs, including being retired and on fixed incomes; and their lack of financial knowledge and experience, which made them unable to evaluate the risks of the recommended transactions.FINRA’s findings stated that Gomez did not have reasonable grounds for believing that the recommendations to the customers were suitable in light of their financial situations and needs, and did not have a reasonable basis for believing that the customers had the knowledge and experience in financial matters to be reasonably expected to be capable of evaluating the risks of the options transactions that Gomez recommended and his options trading strategy.

FINRA’s findings stated that Gomez exercised discretion in trading options in a customer’s account and exercised time discretion in executing orders on behalf of other customers without the customers providing Gomez with prior written discretionary authority over their accounts. None of their accounts had been accepted by his member firm as discretionary accounts.

Also, FINRA’s findings included that Gomez utilized an uncovered index option combination writing (or selling) strategy in customer accounts. The strategy involved selling put and call options on the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 100 stock index.

The suspension is in effect from January 22, 2013, through April 21, 2013. (FINRA Case #2009019302101)

It is listed on FINRA’s BrokerCheck that Paul Grover Gomez was previously registered with FINRA at the following brokerage firms:

MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, FENNER & SMITH INCORPORATED
CRD# 7691
LAGUNA HILLS, CA
03/1990 – 08/2009

DEAN WITTER REYNOLDS INC.
CRD# 7556
PURCHASE, NY
12/1979 – 04/1990
This ends the information from FINRA’s website.

If you have suffered financial losses due to your broker/dealer’s recommendations, call Soreide Law Group for a free consultation with an attorney: 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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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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On the SEC’s (Securities and Exchange Commission) website, it was announced they filed an injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against David L. Rothman of Richboro, PA, a registered representative, Vice President, and minority owner of Rothman Securities, Inc., a registered broker-dealer, for conducting a fraud by issuing false account statements and misappropriating investor funds.

According to the SEC’s investigation, it is alleged that from 2006 to 2011, Rothman created and issued false account statements to certain elderly and unsophisticated investors that overstated the value of their investment accounts. The SEC’s complaint also alleges that when the investors discovered that Rothman had misrepresented the value of their investments, Rothman engaged in a scheme to conceal his fraudulent conduct by agreeing to pay those investors the investment returns he reported on the false account statements. When Rothman could no longer afford to make those payments, he misappropriated funds from another elderly and unsophisticated investor and from two trust accounts for which he serves as trustee. Rothman also used a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds for his personal benefit.

If you invested with David L. Rothman or Rothman Securities, Inc., and experienced financial losses, call and speak at no charge, to a securities attorney who may potentially help you recover those losses. Call: 888-760-6552, or visit our website 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 was found on FINRA’s website’s “Disciplinary and Other Actions, November, 2012.”

Charles Eugene Bishop Jr. (CRD #1621380, Registered Principal, Pompano Beach, Florida)

submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he was fined $7,500 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for two years. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Bishop consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he attempted to misappropriate approximately $3 million from an elderly customer of his member firm.

These findings stated that Bishop created paperwork by which the deceased customer’s assets would be transferred to a purported entity that was never
formed, but whose name was virtually identical to a company the customer owned, with a tax identification number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to another entity that was never formed, but whose sole member, according to IRS records, was Bishop.

Bishop had the customer sign a firm form that designated Bishop’s entity, although the customer’s signature on the form was notarized, the customer was not present before the notary when the signature was notarized.

The beneficiary’s tax identification number on another firm form the customer signed was changed to the tax identification number for the purported entity associated with Bishop as sole member. The signature date of the form was not altered or changed, and the customer did not initiate the change of
the tax identification number. The findings also stated that after the customer passed away, Bishop, through his attorney, filed a notice with a Probate Division with his state’s Circuit Court representing that he had an interest in the customer’s estate as a claimant and beneficiary of the deceased customer’s estate.

Following Bishop’s termination of employment from his firm, the court issued an order invalidating the beneficiary designations that were on file at Bishop’s firm for the customer’s securities accounts.

The suspension will be in effect from December 3, 2012, through December 2, 2014. (FINRA Case #2009017699201)
(This ends the information on the Disciplinary Actions.)

On FINRA’s website under ‘BrokerCheck’ there are pending customer disputes and 7 final customer disputes listed. He also has 1 regulatory event, 1 pending financial, and 1 final termination. The last three firms of employment, all in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, were listed as, National Asset Management, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc., and Morgan Stanley.

Currently, Soreide Law Group has pending FINRA arbitrations against Charles E. Bishop, Jr. If you had invested with Charles Eugene Bishop, Jr., and experienced financial losses, call and speak at no charge to a securities attorney who may potentially help you recover your losses. Call 888-760-6552, or visit http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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Jane E. O’Brien, 59, of Needham, MA, is facing securities fraud for allegedly bilking her client out of $240,000. O’Brien was working for Merrill Lynch in Boston as a financial advisor at the time. O’Brien allegedly told an elderly woman she was investing her money in thousands of shares of a New Hampshire-based company called A.C. Corp. When actually O’Brien was using her client’s money to pay off her own mortgage and settle her legal fees involving a dispute with another client, according to charges filed November 18th., 2012, by federal prosecutors.

This alleged scheme began in 2009, when O’Brien had her client sign a bogus promissory note for $500,000. The client began making payments on the note in late November 2009, prosecutors said. She wrote the checks to a man O’Brien said was an employee at A.C. Corp., but was in reality O’Brien’s husband, the filing said. The husband has not been named and has since separated from O’Brien, according to the filing.

It was reported that after the checks were paid to O’Brien’s husband, he then wrote her checks from the account where the money had been deposited. O’Brien then wired money to her mortgage company to pay her mortgage. Other payments made were used for payment to a law firm representing O’Brien in another dispute with a former client.

Securities Lawyer, Lars Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, has begun an investigation into this matter. If you have invested with Jane E. O’Brien, formerly of Merrill Lynch in Boston, call and speak at no charge to a securities attorney who may potentially help you recover your losses. Call 888-760-6552, or visit http://www.securitieslawyer.com.

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