The following article appeared October 4th., 2012, in The Patriot Ledger, and was written by Steve Adams. "Financial Company on the Hook for Quincy Scammer" By Steve Adams The Patriot Ledger Posted Oct 04, 2012 @ 06:06 AM QUINCY — A couple who lost $255,000 to a Quincy financial adviser’s investment scam will receive a […]

Broker-dealers' falling short in due diligence when selling complex, illiquid products has been a focus of FINRA examinations and fines since the market collapse of 2008, writes Bruce Kelly of InvestmentNews.com. FINRA recently fined and sanctioned a handful of broker-dealers that sold two series of private placements that imploded in 2009 — Medical Capital Holdings […]

FINRA Case Number 11-01278, awards $158,250.00 to the defrauded Claimants for the alleged supervisory failures of Harvest Capital, LLC, of Gregg Rennie and his branch office. Rennie is now serving a prison sentence for selling fictitious notes to investors. Since early 2007, Gregg Rennie, the popular radio host and financial advisor, defrauded numerous clients approximately […]

Brent Keith Deviney (CRD #2131402, Registered Representative, West Palm Beach, Florida) was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. The sanction was based on findings that Deviney failed to respond to FINRA requests for information and documents, and to appear for on-the-record interviews in connection with an investigation of allegations that Deviney […]

Robert Nunes Da Frota (CRD #2137208, Registered Representative, Fort Myers, Florida) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $10,000, suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for six months and ordered to make full repayment of the outstanding balance on a customer’s loan. Without admitting or […]

Florida has determined to fight abuse and exploitation by enacting a specific civil cause of action for exploitation, but the Florida action applies to the exploitation of “vulnerable adults.” As a result, the attorney must be prepared to offer testimony on both prongs of the action and prove that his client is both a “vulnerable […]

LaeRoc Funds are real estate 'private placements' sold by various broker/dealers. LaeRoc Funds, a real estate investment firm, manages over $650 million in assets. LaeRoc 2005-2006 Income Fund, L.P., is trying to raise enough money to pay off debt due to the decline in real estate ventures. June, 2011, the Fund issued a cash call […]

Soreide Law Group is currently investigating Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (AOD). There were nearly 220 million shares sold to the public with a Closed-End Fund trading 31.45% above its Net Asset Value. It may soon be no longer one of the more favored of the Alpine funds. Alpine has recently disclosed that they have […]

On September 9th, 2012, at the annual meeting of the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. (NASAA) in Coronado, California, the top five types of violations in some areas of supervision at broker-dealers were: failure to follow written supervisory policies, suitability, correspondence/e-mail, maintenance of customer account information and internal audits, according to the results of […]