In a March 12th., 2012, article in InvestmentNews.com, Mark Schoeff, Jr., writes that enforcement actions and fines by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. or Finra, jumped sharply in 2011, with the latter rising to $68 million, from $45 million in 2010, a new study shows. The greatest proportion of that figure was penalties for […]

WASHINGTON — In a February article in The Bond Buyer, Jonathan Hemmerdinger writes that a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel ordered Memphis-based Morgan Keegan & Co. to pay a Birmingham investor $1.95 million for misrepresenting that the Jefferson County, Ala., sewer bonds he purchased were safe, liquid and tax-free investments. These bonds were actually […]

The following information was obtained on FINRA’s website’s ‘Disciplinary Actions, February 2012.”   Jeffrey Scott Donner (CRD #2631248, Registered Principal, Weston, Florida)   was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. The sanction was based on findings that Donner executed several unauthorized transactions in customers’ accounts at his member firm without their […]

In a January 24th., 2012 article for InvestmentNews.com, Bruce Kelly writes that it's more bad news for Behringer Harvard Holdings LLC, as an investor who saw the value of her real estate fund drop to $2,000, from an original investment of $50,000, has begun to complain to regulators. On January 20th., 2012, D. Gayle Salyer wrote […]

In an InvestementNews.com article from January20,2012, Dan Jamieson writes that in a regulatory notice, Finra outlined characteristics of what it calls “complex products,” which could include structured notes, inverse or leveraged exchange-traded funds, hedge funds and securitized products such as asset-backed securities. Finra stated that brokerage firms should have formal written procedures covering everything from […]

William D. Cohan, a former investment banker and author, for the Bloomberg View, recently wrote that there has been a fair amount written recently about various institutional cartels that are thriving in the U.S. despite antitrust laws designed to prevent their existence. Unbeknownst to the millions of people who interact with Wall Street every day […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  filed a civil injunctive action charging Monticello, New York investment adviser, Lloyd V. Barriger, registered with Barriger & Barriger Incorporated, with fraud in connection with two upstate New York real estate funds he managed – the Gaffken & Barriger Fund, LLC (the G&B Fund or the Fund), and Campus […]

Alan David Goddard Jr. (CRD #3019681, Registered Representative, Boca Raton, Florida)   has submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $10,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for 45 days. This fine must be paid either immediately upon Goddard’s reassociation with a FINRA member […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is currently investigating claims on behalf of investors in the following firms regarding stock/securities losses: Laidlaw & Company, with locations throughout the United States and the UK, First Midwest Securities, Inc. (FMSI) established in Wisconsin in 1989, FMSI has since relocated to Bloomington, Illinois, Obsidian Financial Group, with offices in New York and […]