Firm News

Adam Gana Discusses New Rules Governing Civil Litigation in New York

October 10, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

The Daily Bulletin recently published an article about new rules governing civil litigation in New York. According to Charisma Troiano, the author of the article in 2013 the Office of Court Administration issued a letter supporting proposed changes to the New York Civil Procedure Legal Rules Section 2106. The new rule allows affirmations obtained outside of the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to hold the same evidentiary weight as a sworn affidavit within the United States. Adam Gana supported the new rule.

The article can be found here.

Adam Gana is Quoted in OnWallStreet.com

September 17, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

Adam Gana, managing partner of Gana Weinstein LLP was quoted in an article by Suleman Din entitled “Hammered by FINRA in Dispute with Morgan Stanely, Advisor Pays $200k.” The article discusses an advisor who took on Morgan Stanley in a contract dispute who lost and was hit with a judgment of approximately $200,000.

Scott Woller of Gana LLP discusses his Successful Career with Law Crossing

September 9, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

Congratulations to Scott Woller who was recently featured on LawCrossing.com. LawCrossing, one of the largest legal career advice websites, contacted Scott and asked to profile him on their website. “We are very proud of Scott and all of our attorneys’ many accomplishments,” said Adam Gana, the firm’s managing partner, “Scott’s career is impressive to say the least.” Scott explained in the article (which can be read in its entirety here) that his role with Gana Weinstein LLP and his role with Airfasttickets, Inc. have placed him in a position to both do corporate work and litigation. Scott has had a storied career to date having clerked at both the trial and appellate level in the federal courts and having worked at some of the most prestigious law firms in the country. Scott graduated number 1 in his class at New York Law School and continues to push his careers to new heights. Congratulations Scott!

Adam Gana of Gana LLP Receives the AVVO 2014 Cleints’ Choice Award

August 19, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

Adam Gana of Gana Weinstein LLP received the Avvo’s Clients’ Choice Award for 2014. “This is a tremendous honor,” said Mr. Gana, “Clients are the life blood of our business and we work tirelessly to make sure they are happy.” Mr. Gana received the award on August 19, 2014.

Gana LLP Represents Seven Former Clients of Sean Sheridan Against JP Turner (Part II)

August 18, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

Continuing our prior post, the law office of Gana Weinstein LLP recently filed securities arbitration case on behalf of a group of seven investors against J.P. Turner Company, L.L.C. (JP Turner), Ridgeway & Conger, Inc. (Ridgeway), and Newbridge Securities, Corp. (Newbridge) concerning allegations that Sean Sheridan (Sheridan) churned claimants’ accounts through the use of excessive and unreasonable mutual fund switches, among other claims.

In addition to specifically finding that Sheridan committed fraud and made unsuitable recommendations in Claimants accounts, FINRA also found that JP Turner general sales practice with regard to non-traditional ETFs and mutual funds was inappropriate. On December 4, 2013, FINRA released a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC) concerning JP Turner’s non-traditional ETFs sales practices and excessive mutual fund switches and fined the firm $707,559.53. FINRA v. J.P. Turner & Company, L.L.C., AWC No. 2011026098501 (FINRA, January 2013). According to FINRA’s investigation, JP Turner failed to establish and maintain supervisory systems related to leveraged and inverse ETF sales and mutual fund purchases.

In another churning related action, on November 8, 2013, the SEC issued a similar order against JP Turner finding that Michael Bresner (Bresner), as head of supervision, failed to properly supervise firm employees. The SEC Order found that JP Turner employed an Account Activity Review System (AARS) to monitor customer accounts for signs of churning. The SEC found that the average number of accounts flagged by the AARS system for churning was shockingly high for each quarter in 2008-2009 and was between 300 and 325 accounts and included more than 100 JP Turner registered representatives. In sum, the SEC discovered that no one at JP Turner was willing to take responsibility in determining whether churning took place in a client’s account – a problem that directly affected the claimants in this case.

Gana LLP Files Complaint on Behalf of Seven Former Clients of Sean Sheridan Against JP Turner

August 15, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

The law office of Gana Weinstein LLP has recently filed securities arbitration case on behalf of a group of seven investors against J.P. Turner Company, L.L.C. (JP Turner), Ridgeway & Conger, Inc. (Ridgeway), and Newbridge Securities, Corp. (Newbridge) concerning allegations that the firms failed to supervise and prevent Sean Francis Sheridan (Sheridan) from churning claimants’ accounts through the use of excessive and unreasonable mutual fund switches and generally making unsuitable recommendations to the clients. Both FINRA and the SEC have brought actions against JP Turner and the firm’s brokers on numerous and repeated occasions concerning the firm’s failure to protect its clients from the type of unscrupulous sales practices alleged in the complaint

As discovered by FINRA, from at least January 2007, through December 2009, Sheridan recommended approximately 205 unsuitable mutual fund switch transactions in the accounts of eight customers, including some of the Claimants in the filed case. See Department of Enforcement v. Sean Francis Sheridan, Disciplinary Proceeding No. 2009019209204, (FINRA, Feb. 12, 2013) (Sheridan Action). FINRA found that Sheridan recommended the unsuitable mutual fund switches in customers’ accounts and as a result of Sheridan’s activities in claimants’ and other customers’ accounts, FINRA barred Sheridan from the financial industry.

FINRA found that Sheridan only recommended Class A mutual fund shares that require customers to pay sales charges with each new purchase when Sheridan intended to effect the switches on a short-term basis. FINRA found that the average holding period for the mutual funds Sheridan sold was just four to five months. FINRA found that Sheridan exclusively recommended Class A mutual fund shares that charged front-end sales loads of 4-5% with each new purchase, an enormous cost. FINRA also found that Sheridan would randomly switch customers between fund categories such as Growth, Natural Resources, Gold, Emerging Markets, Science and Technology without a reasonable basis for doing so.

Gana LLP Files Complaint on Behalf of a Family Against First Allied Securities and Centaurus Financial

August 14, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP recently filed a securities arbitration case on behalf of a family of four investors against First Allied Securities, Inc. (First Allied) and Centaurus Financial, Inc. (Centaurus) concerning allegations that their financial advisor Seyed Ahmad Hashemian (Hashemian) made unsuitable and inappropriate investment recommendations to claimants’ by recommending a near 100% concentration in illiquid, speculative, and high commission investments including variable annuities, equity-indexed annuities (EIAs), private placements, oil and gas ventures, non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), and Advanced Equities private placements.

Our law offices have represented over a dozen investors who alleged that they were sold the Advanced Equities private placements through the use of false and misleading advertising materials. In addition, to customer complaints both FINRA and the SEC have sanctioned Advanced Equities concerning the misleading nature of their sales practices. Customers have alleged that the products were misrepresented as “late stage equities” that were a mere 12-36 months from going public. The complaint also alleged that the investments were sold as providing “Higher near-term investment returns than the public equity markets” while providing “Greater short-term liquidity and lower risk profiles.” The complaint alleged that these representations were false and that First Allied failed to conduct even basic due diligence to verify the accuracy of these statements.

In the case of the recent complaint filed, claimants’ investments were alleged to have been made using money that was supposed to be used to replace the earnings the untimely passing of a family member. As a result, the complaint alleged that over a nearly nine year period where the broader market indexes have hit all-time highs, claimants have lost significant sums their investments. The claimants alleged that they have been deprived of the ability to generate reasonable returns by being trapped in illiquid and unsuitable investments.

Gana LLP Files Complaint on Behalf of Five Customers Against JP Turner and National Securities Concerning Ralph Calabro’s Churning

August 12, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

Gana Weinstein LLP has recently filed securities arbitration case on behalf of a group of five investors against J.P. Turner Company, L.L.C. (JP Turner) and National Securities Corporation (National Securities) concerning the alleged complete lack of supervision at JP Turner and National Securities to monitor and prevent Ralph Calabro (Calabro) from churning customer accounts.

As a background, Calabro was expelled from the securities industry when on November 8, 2013, the SEC issued an order (SEC Order) finding that JP Turner registered representatives including Calabro, Jason Konner, and Dimitrios Koutsoubos churned customer accounts and Executive Vice President (EVP), Michael Bresner (Bresner), as head of supervision, failed to supervise the representative’s activities.

The SEC alleged that JP Turner knew that numerous accounts had a cost-to-equity ratio greater than 20%, a number sufficiently high to establish an inference of churning requiring close supervision and corrective action. The reports of these accounts resulted in an report being emailed to principals and the compliance office for review including Bresner. The SEC found that the average number of accounts being reviewed for high costs was shockingly high for each quarter in 2008-2009 and was between 300 and 325 accounts and included more than 100 JP Turner registered representatives. Even though these accounts bore the hallmarks of churning, Bresner testified that he could not recall closing an account, personally contacting any JP Turner customers, or even imposing a trading limitation.

Gana LLP Files Customer Complaint Against JHS Capital Concerning Broker Joe Alijaj

August 11, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

The law office of Gana Weinstein LLP recently filed a securities arbitration on behalf of an investor against JHS Capital Advisors, LLC f/k/a Pointe Capital, Inc. (JHS Capital) concerning allegations that the broker recommended unsuitable investments, churned the account, and ultimately depleted the claimant’s assets.

The claimant is sixty-one years old and spent the majority of his career running seed companies. The claimant alleged that he had little understanding of the stock and bond markets. The complaint alleged that Enver Rahman “Joe” Alijaj (Alijaj), a broker with JHS Capital, cold called claimant and aggressively pursued the opportunity to manage claimant’s money. The complaint alleged that prior to opening his account with JHS, claimant never maintained a brokerage account. The claimant alleged that he explained to Alijaj that he wanted to focus on preservation of his capital.

In reliance on Alijaj’s assurances, the claimant alleged that he provided the broker with a substantial portion of his net worth. Rather than comply with the claimant’s investment needs, the complaint alleged that Alijaj took advantage of the claimant’s inexperience by investing the funds in unreasonably volatile stocks and excessively traded (churned, a type of securities fraud) his account to generate excessive commissions. According to the complaint, within days of opening the account, Alijaj leveraged the account and actively traded speculative small cap stocks in unsuitable investments including A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (APWR), Silicon Motion Technology Corp (SIMO), and Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co. (YGE).

Gana LLP Files Puerto Rico Municipal Bond Claim Against UBS On Behalf of Client

August 9, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP has recently filed securities arbitration case on behalf of an investor against UBS Financial Services, Inc. and UBS Financial Services, Inc. of Puerto Rico (UBS) involving allegations that UBS’ misleading sales tactics and inappropriate recommendations surrounding Puerto Rico bonds in the Claimant’s portfolio. According to the complaint, UBS encouraged a 26 year-old unemployed single mother to invest her life savings in just three Puerto Rico municipal bonds—Puerto Rico Employees Retirement System Bonds (ERS Bond), Puerto Rico Commonwealth Public Buildings Authority Bonds (Commonwealth Bond), and Puerto Rico Industrial, Tourist, Educational, Medical and Environmental Control Facilities Financing Authority (AFICA) Industrial Revenue Refunding Bonds (AFICA Bond). In addition, the complaint alleged that UBS recommended that the Claimant take out significant loans to leverage up her investment in these three bonds that were all hovering just above junk status.

The Claimant is a 26 year-old single mother, dedicates all of her time towards caring for her eighteen-month-old daughter. Unfortunately, the Claimant’s father passed away in October 2010 causing Claimant to receive life insurance proceeds from his passing. The Claimant used some of those proceeds to pay off the debts that she had accrued over the years and sought to use the remaining portion to invest for the future of her and her daughter.

Claimant alleged that UBS completely disregarded the risks inherent to the Puerto Rico municipal bonds and constructed a portfolio comprised solely of these soon-to-be-defunct securities. Claimant’s brokers Ramon M. Almonte (Almonte) and Juan E. Goytia (Goytia), recommended an approximate 130% concentration, through the use of leverage, in municipal debt. Claimant alleged that the bonds were portrayed as safe, secure, fixed-income securities that would preserve her principal while providing tax-free income. Contrary to UBS’ portrayal, the bonds recommended are volatile investments carrying a multitude of risks. According to the complaint UBS’ unsuitable recommendations and inappropriate asset allocation ultimately cost the Claimant most of her money.