On November 10th., 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced penalties against 13 brokerage firms for failing to protect their clients in the sales of high-risk government bonds issued by Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico currently has over $73 billion in public debt which has accumulated over several decades. Now in its eighth year of recession, Puerto Rico has an unemployment rate of 13.5%
These fines represent the SEC's first actions under a rule which establishes the smallest amount or "minimum denomination" of municipal bonds that brokerages can sell in a single transaction to an investor. This is to ensure that the high-risk "junk bonds" are only sold to the investors who purchase in large quantities. The SEC found 66 cases in which bond sales below $100,000 minimum set which totaled $3.5 billion sale this year of Puerto Rican government bonds.
The 13 firms with amounts fined are:
Hapoalim Securities $54,000; Riedl First Securities $130,000; Charles Schwab & Co. $61,800; Interactive Brokers LLC $56,000; Investment Professionals Inc. $67,800; JPMorgan Securities $54,000; Lebenthal & Co. $54,000; National Securities Corp. $60,000; Oppenheimer & Co. $61,200; Stifel Nicolaus & Co. $60,000; TD Ameritrade $100,800; UBS Financial Services $56,400; and Wedbush Securities Inc. $67,200.
Soreide Law Group is representing investors nationally and internationally in the Puerto Rico bond loss cases. If you purchased Puerto Rican "junk bonds" through your broker or dealer, call (888) 760-6552 for a free consultation on how to recover your financial losses.
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