Articles Tagged with Centaurus

shutterstock_20354398-300x200Advisor Valentino Scott (Scott), currently employed by brokerage firm Centaurus Financial, Inc. (Centaurus) has been subject to at least 10 disclosures including eight customer complaints, one regulatory action, and one employment termination for cause.  According to a BrokerCheck report some of the customer complaints concern alternative investments such as direct participation products (DPPs) like business development companies (BDCs), non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and private placements.  The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products and have recovered in excess of $50 million in investor losses.

In July 2022 a customer complained that Scott violated the securities laws by alleging that Scott misrepresented an unsuitable investment. The claim is currently pending and no specific damages are provided.

In March 2022 a customer complained that Scott violated the securities laws by alleging that Scott from October 2013 to the present, Scott made poor recommendations, misrepresented and overconcentrated the customers accounts in unsuitable, illiquid and risky investments.  The claim is currently pending and no specific damages are provided.

DDPs include products such as non-traded REITs, oil and gas offerings, equipment leasing products, and other alternative investments.  These alternative investments virtually never profit investors and are almost always unsuitable for investors because of their high fee and cost structure.  Brokers selling these products are paid additional commission in order to hype these inferior quality investments providing a perverse incentives to create an artificial market for the investments. Continue Reading

shutterstock_57561913-300x189Our 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.

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