On May 29th., 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a Miami-based hedge fund adviser for deceiving investors about whether its executives had personally invested in a Latin America-focused hedge fund. According to the SEC’s investigation, they found that Quantek Asset Management LLC made misrepresentations about fund managers having “skin in the game” along with investors in the $1 […]

A group of retirees ambushed financial advisor James Amburn, 56, outside his home in Speyer, Germany. The group attacked him and put him into the trunk of a car. "It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath," said Amburn, who was then driven to one of their homes where he was held prisoner. They were angry because Amburn had […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, and Securities Attorney Lars K. Soreide, are investigating James J. Albright, Jr., and Sagepoint Financial, Inc., previously known as AIG Financial Advisers, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The alleged claims are based on Albright’s recommendations to his clients to purchase unsuitable, risky and illiquid non-traded real estate investment trusts (“REITs”). Due to the result of Albright’s alleged sales practices, his […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) published a news release on their website, May 22, 2012, announcing that it has fined Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. $3.5 million.  This fine was for 'providing inaccurate mortgage performance information, supervisory failures and other violations in connection with subprime residential mortgage-backed securitizations (RMBS).' FINRA notes in their article that the issuers of RMBS […]

In a May 24th, 2012, article from Ft. Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel, Jon Burstein writes that an investment adviser from Ft. Lauderdale, and others, exploited trust and friendships within the Ft. Lauderdale gay community of Wilton Manors to help fuel a multimillion-dollar investment fraud, according a lawsuit brought this week by a group of investors. There were fourteen residents of […]

Many of our clients ask about FINRA's BrokerCheck.  Located on FINRA's website, finra.org, BrokerCheck is defined by FINRA as "a free tool to help investors research the professional backgrounds of current and former FINRA-registered brokerage firms and brokers, as well as investment adviser firms and representatives. It should be the first resource investors turn to […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is currently investigating claims against Douglas A. Leone of Newport Coast Securities, Irvine, California.  Leone was previously, according to FINRA's Brokercheck,  located in New York. Currently, according to FINRA's Brokercheck, Leone has 3 pending customer disputes against him and has other cases that have been settled in arbitration.  The alleged charges against him that were settled […]

As of today, Facebook (FB) shares have fallen roughly 18.4 percent from their $38 IPO price, within the first three days of trading, reducing the value of stock sold in the IPO by more than $2.9 billion. It was announced that Facebook, Inc., Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, and the banks, including Morgan Stanley, are being sued by shareholders,  […]

In a May 21, 2012 article from the InvestmentNews.com website, Bruce Kelly writes that the SEC is looking at “several areas of high risk” in the securities industry. Some of the areas they are looking into  include broker-dealer due diligence, net capital levels at broker-dealers and “dark pools” of liquidity, said Julius Leiman-Carbia, associate director […]