Securities Lawyers Blog
Our investment attorneys are investigating customer complaints filed with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) against Donnie Ingram (Ingram) currently associated with Centaurus Financial, Inc. (Centaurus) alleging unsuitable investments among other claims. According to brokercheck records Ingram has been subject to eight customer complaints. Many of the complaints involve direct participation products (DPPs) such as non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other alternative investments.
Our firm has experience representing investment fraud victims with these investments against Centaurus as well as other brokerage firms. See Gana Weinstein LLP Wins Arbitration Award On Behalf of Client Against Centaurus Financial. In that case, the Claimant alleged that the broker involved invested over $2,000,000 in exclusively high cost products and 50% of those investments were in alternative investments such as private placements, oil and gas partnerships, and REITs. The other 50% was invested in variable and equity-indexed annuities. Award Can Be Found Here.
All of these investments come with high costs and have historically underperformed even safe benchmarks, like U.S. treasury bonds. For example, products like oil and gas partnerships, REITs, and other alternative investments are only appropriate for a narrow band of investors under certain conditions due to the high costs, illiquidity, and huge redemption charges of the products, if they can be redeemed at all. However, due to the high commissions brokers earn on these products they sell them to investors who cannot profit from them and have created a large market for a failed product. Further, investor often fail to understand that they have lost money in these illiquid investments until many years after investing. In sum, for all of their costs and risks, investors in these programs are in no way additionally compensated for the loss of liquidity, risks, or cost.
The most recent complaint was filed in November 2016 alleging that Ingram made unsuitable investments from 2003 through 2015 causing $906,353 in damages. The claim is currently pending. Another customer filed a complaint also in November 2016 making similar allegations causing $222,266 in damages. That case is also pending.
Ingram entered the securities industry in 1985. From February 1997 through July 2016 Ingram was associated with Investors Capital Corp. Since July 2016 Ingram has been associated with Centaurus out of the firm’s Winter Haven, Florida office location.
According to a recent study conducted by the Securities Litigation and Consulting Group entitled “How Widespread and Predictable is Stock Broker Misconduct?” the incidents of investor harm at Cannon’s former brokerage firm Centaurus Financial, Inc. (Centaurus) is extraordinarily high. The study ranked Centaurus as the fourth worst brokerage firm finding that brokers at the firm had over a 27% misconduct rate. The study stated that investors should stay away from Centaurus “Given their coworkers’ disclosure record as of 2014, 83.7% of the brokers at these six firms would be in the highest risk quintile as defined in the FINRA study and should be avoided by investors. The BrokerCheck reports for most of the brokers at these six firms should prominently display a skull and crossbones warning.”
Gana Weinstein LLP’s securities fraud attorneys represent investors who have suffered securities losses due to the mishandling of their accounts due to claims of fraud and negligence. The majority of these claims may be brought in securities arbitration before FINRA. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.