MLP Tag Archives — Securities Lawyers Blog

Customers File Complaints Against Broker Charles Correal Over Unsuitable Oil and Gas Investments

May 21, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). According to Brokercheck records, Charles Correal (Correal) formerly with Morgan Stanley operating from their offices in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania has recently received at least several customer complaints with similar allegations that the broker overconcentrated them in oil and gas related investments.

One of the most popular energy related investments that have become increasingly popular in the brokerage industry in recent years are MLPs. MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

Wells Fargo Broker Charles Frieda Energy Stock Investor Claims

April 23, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). According to Brokercheck records, Charles Frieda (Frieda) currently with Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC (Wells Fargo) and operating from their offices in Irvine, California has recently received at least 17 customer complaints with similar allegations that the broker overconcentrated them in oil and gas equities, preferred stock, and debt. Four complaints have been filed against Frieda in 2016 alone.

One of the most popular energy related investments in the brokerage industry in recent years are MLPs. MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

Pengrowth Energy Corporation (PGH) Investor Loss Recovery

March 19, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. One royalty trust that has suffered substantial declines is Pengrowth Energy Corporation (Stock Symbol: PGH). Over the past two years the trust has suffered a 89% loss in value.

Pengrowth Energy Corporation is an intermediate Canadian oil and natural gas producer with a 27 years operating history and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The company claims to have exposure to large oil-in-place conventional plays, large low-risk resource plays, and early-stage development plays. The resources that the company claims access to include Cardium light oil, Lindbergh thermal bitumen, Swan Hills light oil, and Montney natural gas projects.

Our clients tell us similar stories that their advisors hyped energy investments as high yielding securities without significant discussion of risk. In a recent Associated Press article, common stories of how investors are pitched by their financial advisors on oil and gas private placements were reported on. Often times these products are pitched as ways to ride the boom in U.S. oil and gas production and receive steady streams of income.

Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT) Investor Loss Recovery

March 14, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. One royalty trust that has suffered substantial declines is Hugoton Royalty Trust (Stock Symbol: HGT). Over the past year the trust has suffered a 77% loss in value.

Hugoton Royalty Trust was created in 1998 when XTO Energy Inc. conveyed 80% net profits interests in gas-producing properties located in Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming to the trust. The trust was created to distribute monthly net profits related to the 80% net profits interests.

Oil and gas royalty trusts, like master limited partnerships (MLPs), invest in the energy and commodities sector. However, unlike MLPs, royalty trusts generate income from the actual production of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas and therefore the cash flows from royalty trusts are subject to swings in commodity prices and production levels causing them to be very inconsistent. Royalty trusts have no physical operations, no management, and no employees. Instead, royalty trusts are merely financing vehicles run by banks that trade like stocks. Another company actually mine the resources and pay the royalties to the trust.

Gana LLP Files Complaint on Behalf of Investor Alleging Breach of Fiduciary Duty in the Sale of MLPs Against Wells Fargo

March 13, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP have brought a claim on behalf of an investor who suffered a loss of nearly all of their assets due to investments made by their Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC (Wells Fargo) advisor, Andrew Kevlahan (Kevlahan), almost exclusively in master limited partnerships (MLPs), Business Development Corporations (BDC), commodities linked investments, and other private equity high yield funds. The investor is 79 years old and retired with her husband.

The complaint alleges that on or about May 2011, the couple had become completely retired and had a securities backed loan with Wells Fargo secured by their investment account. The complaint alleged that due to these major lifestyle and financial circumstance changes, which were disclosed and known to Kevlahan, the couple’s investment objectives, income needs, and risk tolerance had changed requiring suitable investments that would diversify and protect the couple’s savings.

Instead, the complaint alleges that Kevlahan failed to properly advise the investor and breached his fiduciary duty to his client by continually increasing the concentration of the account in risky high yielding investments. By May 2011, the complaint alleges that concentration of high yield investments and MLPs grew to more than 50% of all of the investor’s assets. Despite the change in life circumstances, the complaint alleges that Kevlahan used his discretionary authority in order to continually increase the amount of risk in the account and by August 2014, the investor had a concentration of 62% of the couple’s assets in MLPs and 18% in other high yield investments – a total of 80% of the couple’s assets were exposed to extreme risk.

Broker Investigation: William Berg Unsuitable Oil and Gas Investments

March 11, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). According to Brokercheck records, William Berg (Berg) with Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC (Wells Fargo) has recently received a customer complaint alleging overconcentrated positions in oil and gas equities.

As a background, MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

Pacific Coast Oil Trust (ROYT) Investor Loss Recovery

March 9, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. One royalty trust that has suffered substantial declines is Pacific Coast Oil Trust (Stock Symbol: ROYT). Since the trust’s inception in May 2012 it has suffered a 95% loss in value.

Pacific Coast Oil Trust is a Delaware statutory trust formed by Pacific Coast Energy Company LP (PCEC) containing interests in California onshore oil properties located in the Santa Maria and Los Angeles Basins. PCEC owns the underlying properties which consist of proved developed reserves and other development potential on the underlying properties most of which is oil and natural gas related production.

Oil and gas royalty trusts, like master limited partnerships (MLPs), invest in the energy and commodities sector. However, unlike MLPs, royalty trusts generate income from the actual production of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas and therefore the cash flows from royalty trusts are subject to swings in commodity prices and production levels causing them to be very inconsistent. Royalty trusts have no physical operations, no management, and no employees. Instead, royalty trusts are merely financing vehicles run by banks that trade like stocks. Another company actually mine the resources and pay the royalties to the trust.

Whiting USA Trust II (WHZ) Investor Loss Recovery

March 9, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. One royalty trust that has suffered substantial declines is Whiting USA Trust II (Stock Symbol: WHZ). Over the past year the trust has suffered a 95% loss.

Whiting Oil Trust II was created in December of 2011 at the height of the oil market and has since suffered staggering losses as oil has tumbled. Recently, the price of the trust to drop below $1 per unit and was delisted.

Oil and gas royalty trusts, like master limited partnerships (MLPs), invest in the energy and commodities sector. However, unlike MLPs, royalty trusts generate income from the actual production of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas and therefore the cash flows from royalty trusts are subject to swings in commodity prices and production levels causing them to be very inconsistent. Royalty trusts have no physical operations, no management, and no employees. Instead, royalty trusts are merely financing vehicles run by banks that trade like stocks. Another company actually mine the resources and pay the royalties to the trust.

EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (ENLK) Investor Recovery Options

March 7, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP continue to report on investor related losses in oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area.

Among the MLPs that have suffered significant declines is EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:ENLK). EnLink Midstream Partners has plummeted in value by about 71% in value over the last year. According to the company’s website, EnLink Midstream Partners has expansive gathering, processing, fractionation, transportation, and logistics assets located in the Barnett, Permian Basin, the Gulf Coast, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Cana-Woodford, Arkoma-Woodford, Utica, and the Marcellus areas. The company has more than 9,200 miles of gathering and transportation pipelines, 17 processing plants with 3.6 billion cubic feet of net processing capacity, and seven fractionators with 280 million barrels per day of net fractionation capacity. Since the company’s formation in 2014, it has executed approximately $4.3 billion of acquisitions and growth projects.

As a background, The MLP sector had totaled $600 billion in assets at its peak before collapsing to about $300 billion now. According to the Associated Press, investors have lost an astonishing $8 of every $10 they had invested since 2014. The research does not include losses from $37 billion of bonds sold by the partnerships in the five years since 2010 or losses from private placement partnerships. However, banks like Citigroup, Barclays, and Wells Fargo made an estimated $1.1 billion in fees for selling these products to investors.

Mesabi Trust (MSB) Investor Loss Recovery

March 7, 2016 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. One royalty trust that has suffered substantial declines is Mesabi Trust (Stock Symbol: MSB). Over the past year the trust has suffered a 76% loss.

According to the company’s website, Mesabi Trust is a royalty trust organized in 1961 and derives income from an iron mine from the Peter Mitchell Mine located near Babbitt, Minnesota, at the eastern end of the Mesabi Iron Range. The mine is operated by Northshore Mining Company, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Oil and gas royalty trusts, like master limited partnerships (MLPs), invest in the energy and commodities sector. However, unlike MLPs, royalty trusts generate income from the actual production of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas and therefore the cash flows from royalty trusts are subject to swings in commodity prices and production levels causing them to be very inconsistent. Royalty trusts have no physical operations, no management, and no employees. Instead, royalty trusts are merely financing vehicles run by banks that trade like stocks. Another company actually mine the resources and pay the royalties to the trust.