The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned the following eight firms and 10 individuals, and ordered restitution totaling more than $3.2 million, for selling interests in private placement offerings without having a reasonable basis for recommending the securities. The firms and individuals sold interests in several high-risk private placements, including those issued by Provident Royalties, […]

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 […]

It was announced today that a federal judge sentenced a 36-year-old Dallas man, Joseph Blimline, in connection with his role in a pair of complex, lucrative oil and gas Ponzi schemes that operated in Michigan and Texas, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas John M. Bales announced. Joseph Blimline was sentenced to 240 months in federal […]

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 InvestmentNews.com article by Bruce Kelly, he writes that failed private placements issued by Medical Capital Holdings Inc. and Provident Royalties LLC have forced dozens of broker-dealers to close, be sold or seek bankruptcy protection. Failed real estate tenant-in-common syndicator DBSI Inc. is threatening to have the same result, with DeWaay Financial Network LLC […]

Pacific West Securities, Inc., a sizable independent broker-dealer with about 290 affiliated reps and advisers, is shutting down due to thin margins and high costs of doing business, with the reps moving to a broker-dealer in Cetera Financial Group, writes Bruce Kelly in a Dec. 6, 2011, ariticle for InvesmentNews.com. Kelly writes that Pacific West Securities […]

In a November 25, 2011, article in InvestNews.com, Bruce Kelly writes that broker-dealers who sold billions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent private placements failed massively in their due-diligence responsibilities to investors, according to the assessment of forensic accountant and expert witness Gordon Yale, who has worked on more than 50 legal claims brought by investors against […]

In a November 28, 2011 article for InvestmentNews.com, Bruce Kelly writes that Next Financial Group, Inc. has agreed to pay $2 million in restitution to clients who bought oil and natural gas private placements of Provident Royalties LLC, which the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009 accused of fraud. In a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, announced that they are currently investigating the sale of the Laeroc Funds, including the Laeroc 2002 Income Fund LP, Laeroc 2004-2005 Income Fund LP, Laeroc 2005-2006 Income Fund LP, Laeroc Edge Fund LP and Laeroc Income Fund 2007, LP. These Laeroc funds were sold as real estate private placements (under Regulation D).  […]