Securities Lawyers Blog

Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor Juan Barreras Has Suitability Customer Complaints

May 11, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating BrokerCheck records reports that financial advisor Juan Barreras (Barreras), currently employed by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Merrill Lynch) has been subject to at least five customer complaints during the course of his career. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Barreras’ customer complaints alleges that Barreras recommended unsuitable investments in various investments including allegations of unsuitable municipal bonds and mutual fund securities among other allegations of misconduct relating to the handling of their accounts.

In August 2019 a customer complained that Barreras violated the securities laws by alleging that Barreras made investments recommendations in unsuitable investment recommendations and misrepresentation. The claim alleges $800,000 in damages and is currently pending.

In January 2019 a customer complained that Barreras violated the securities laws by alleging that Barreras made investments recommendations in unsuitable investment recommendations and misrepresentation. The claim alleges $600,000 in damages and is currently pending.

In August 2016 a customer complained that Barreras violated the securities laws by alleging that Barreras made investments recommendations in unsuitable investment recommendations, misrepresentation and omission of material facts from January 2011 to December 2016. The claim alleges $500,000 in damages and settled for $125,000.

Advisor Dana Vietor Sanctioned Over Promissory Note Sales

May 10, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor Dana Vietor (Vietor) has been accused by his former employer and a financial regulator of selling a non-approved product among other allegations. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Vietor was terminated by his prior employer, CFD Investments, Inc. (CFD Investments) concerning his outside business activities. Thereafter, FINRA barred Vietor from the securities industry relating to sales activities. If you have been a victim of Vietor’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

In November 2018 CFD Investments terminated Vietor after alleging that he engaged in private securities transactions without providing information to the firm or seeking approval for the transactions. Financial adviser submitted annual questionnaires to the firm advising the firm that he was not engaging in private securities transactions.

In March 2020 FINRA filed a regulatory action against Vietor finding that Vietor consented to sanctions and findings that he engaged in the sale of promissory notes called deposit agreements totaling more than $3 million without disclosing and receiving approval from his member firms for the private securities transactions. FINRA also found that Vietor was engaged in a start-up business venture that required funding and that the deposit agreements raised funds for entities associated with the business venture.

Vietor’s outside business activities disclosed on his publicly available BrokerCheck report include Financial Independence Corporation, SRS Holdings LLC, and SRS Management LLC.

UBS ETRACs Investor Loss Recovery Options

May 9, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investors who were inappropriately recommended UBS ETRACs related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in these speculative and volatile investment offerings. UBS ETRACs are exchange-traded notes that track and provide monthly payments based on a variety of market indexes. Many of the ETRACs offerings amplify their returns and risk of the index through the use of leverage.

ETRACs symbols include HDLV, SMHD, DVHL, CEFL, CEFZ, BDCL, LBDC, MORL, MRRL, LRET, MLPQ, HOML, MLPZ, LMLP and WTID.

Close to 30 of these ETRACs leveraged and inverse exchange-traded products had been delisted, closed, or automatically accelerated due to volatility in the wake of COVID-19. These products are being delisted as they fall in value below the minimum listing standard outlined in the offering documents.

As a background, an exchange-traded note (ETN) is an unsecured debt security issued by an underwriting banking institution. Many of the largest brokerage firms underwrite these types of products due to the large fees that they can generate for simply creating the security. Similar to other kinds of debt securities ETNs have a maturity date. ETNs also carry the risk that they are backed only by the creditworthiness of the issuer and not the value of the underlining securities.

ETRACs investments effected include:

SEC Alleges Investment Fraud – EquiAlt LLC – Recovery Options

May 9, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating potential claims against brokerage firms for selling securities issued by entities related to EquiAlt, LLC. EquiAlt purports to be a private real estate company with at least four private placements offerings: EquiAlt Fund, LLC; EquiAlt Fund II, LLC; EquiAlt Fund III, LLC; and EA Sip, LLC.

On February 18, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an emergency enforcement action and sought to obtain a temporary restraining order along with an asset freeze against EquiAlt LLC, its CEO Brian Davison, and its Managing Director Barry Rybicki. The SEC alleged that the action was being made in connection with EquiAlt’s alleged fraudulent unregistered securities offering that raised more than $170 million from at least 1,100 investors.

According to the SEC’s complaint, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, EquiAlt, Davison, Rybicki, and the other entities involved in the claimed fraud, raised millions of dollars by making material misrepresentations and false claims to investors about EquiAlt’s investment strategy. The SEC claims that the EquiAlt told investors they would pool investor funds and use approximately 90% of the money to purchase under-valued real estate, rent or flip the properties, and pay investors 8-10% annual interest generated from the real estate investments. However, as in the case with so many frauds, the SEC is claiming that a large portion of investor money went to support Davison’s and Rybicki’s lavish personal spending and that in fact less than 50% of the funds raised were used to invest in properties and other legitimate purposes. The SEC is claiming that money from one investment fund controlled by EquiAlt was allegedly used to make Ponzi-like payments to investors in another fund. Such commingling of funds amongst supposedly separate entities is common in Ponzi-schemes.

Rena Morris Has Complaints Over Tenant-In-Common (TIC) Real Estate Sales Practices

May 6, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

Advisor Rena Morris (Morris), currently employed by Lighthouse Capital Group, LLC (Lighthouse Capital Group, LLC), has been subject to at least two customer complaints during the course of her career. According to a BrokerCheck one of the customer complaints concerns private placement sales of Tenant-in-Common (TIC) real estate products. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high-risk products.

In December 2019 a customer complained that Morris violated the securities laws by alleging that Morris engaged in sales practice violations by conducting limited due diligence regarding a DST investment in 2015. The claim alleges $798,350 and is currently pending.

TIC investments have led to devastating investor losses and are in almost all cases unsuitable products. The near certainty of failure of investing in TICs as a whole has led to the product virtually disappearing as an offered investment from most reputable brokerage firms. According to InvestmentNews “At the height of the TIC market in 2006, 71 sponsors raised $3.65 billion in equity from TICs and DSTs…TICs now are all but extinct because of the fallout from the credit crisis.” In fact, TICs recommendations have been a major contributor to bankrupting brokerage firms. For example, 43 of the 92 broker-dealers that sold TICs sponsored by DBSI Inc., a company whose executives were later charged with running a Ponzi scheme, a staggering 47% of firms that sold DBSI are no longer in business.

Lee Kramer Has Complaint Over Alternative Investment Sales Practices

May 6, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

Advisor Lee Kramer (Kramer), currently employed by FSC Securities Corporation (FSC Securities), has been subject to at least two customer complaints, seven regulatory actions, and two employment terminations for cause during the course of his career. According to a BrokerCheck report one 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. Kramer discloses that he operates a number of outside businesses, some of which are investment related, including Kramer Financial, LLC and Kramer Wealth Managers. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products.

In October 2019 a customer complained that Kramer violated the securities laws by alleging that Kramer engaged in sales practice violations related to recommending alternative investments such as BDCs and an annuity. The claim alleges $93,000 and is currently pending.

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.

Several studies have confirmed that Non-traded REITs underperform publicly traded REITs with some showing that Non-Traded REITs cannot even beat safe benchmarks, like U.S. treasury bonds. Brokers selling these products must disclose to the investor that non-traded REITs provide lower investment returns than treasuries while being high risk and illiquid – but almost never do. Because investors are not compensated with additional return in exchange for higher risk and illiquidity, these kinds of alternative investment products are rarely, if ever, appropriate for investors. Continue Reading

John Davenport Subject to Regulatory and Customer Complaints Over Sales Practices

May 4, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

According to BrokerCheck records financial advisor John Davenport (Davenport), currently employed by Liberty Partners Financial Services, LLC (Liberty Partners) has been subject to three customer complaints, one regulatory action, one employment termination for cause, one bankruptcy, and two judgement or tax liens during his career. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the customer complaints against Davenport concern allegations over variable annuity sales practices.

In January 2019 FINRA alleged that Davenport consented to the sanctions and to findings that he placed two securities transactions for a registered representative of another firm and split the commissions generated from the transactions with that representative, without the knowledge or consent of either firm. FINRA determined that Davenport paid the registered representative from the other firm approximately $50,000 on the variable annuity transactions ostensibly as a referral fee causing his firm’s books and records to be inaccurate. FINRA further made findings that Davenport permitted his assistant to use a personal email address to communicate with securities customers concerning business-related matters, which was not approved by the firm, causing the firm to fail to retain the emails among its books and records.

Variable annuities are complex financial and insurance products. In fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a publication entitled: Variable Annuities: What You Should Know encouraging investors to ask questions about the variable annuity before investing. Essentially, a variable annuity is a contract with an insurance company under which the insurer agrees to make periodic payments to you. The investor chooses the investments made in the annuity and value of your variable annuity will vary depending on the performance of the investment options chosen. The primary benefits of variable annuities are the death benefit and tax deferment of investment gains.

Stephen Holt Has Complaints Over Tenant-In-Common (TIC) Real Estate Sales Practices

May 4, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

Advisor Stephen Holt (Holt), currently employed by Lighthouse Capital Group, LLC (Lighthouse Capital Group, LLC), has been subject to at least two customer complaints during the course of his career. According to a BrokerCheck those customer complaints concern private placement sales of Tenant-in-Common (TIC) real estate products. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high-risk products.

In February 2020 a customer complained that Holt violated the securities laws by alleging that Holt engaged in sales practice violations by conducting limited due diligence regarding a DST investment in 2015. The claim alleges $227,847 and is currently pending.

In December 2019 a customer complained that Holt violated the securities laws by alleging that Holt engaged in sales practice violations by conducting limited due diligence regarding a DST investment in 2015. The claim alleges $168,370 and is currently pending.

TIC investments have led to devastating investor losses and are in almost all cases unsuitable products. The near certainty of failure of investing in TICs as a whole has led to the product virtually disappearing as an offered investment from most reputable brokerage firms. According to InvestmentNews “At the height of the TIC market in 2006, 71 sponsors raised $3.65 billion in equity from TICs and DSTs…TICs now are all but extinct because of the fallout from the credit crisis.” In fact, TICs recommendations have been a major contributor to bankrupting brokerage firms. For example, 43 of the 92 broker-dealers that sold TICs sponsored by DBSI Inc., a company whose executives were later charged with running a Ponzi scheme, a staggering 47% of firms that sold DBSI are no longer in business.

Dustin Shafer Has Complaints Over Alternative Investment Sales Practices

May 3, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

Advisor Dustin Shafer (Shafer), currently employed by Newbridge Securities Corporation (Newbridge Securities), has been subject to at least seven customer complaints and two tax liens or judgement during the course of his career. According to a BrokerCheck report one 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.

In January 2020 a customer complained that Shafer violated the securities laws by alleging that Shafer engaged in sales practice violations related to recommending an investment that was not explained and that was guaranteed a montly dividend. The claim alleges $175,000 and is currently pending.

In January 2020 a customer complained that Shafer violated the securities laws by alleging that Shafer engaged in sales practice violations related to recommending alternatives investment beginning in 2013 that were misrepresented. The claim alleges violations of Illinois securities laws, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, and violation of FINRA rules. The claim alleges $454,000 in damages and is currently pending.

Timothy Touloukian Has Complaints Over Private Placement Sales Practices

May 3, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

Advisor Timothy Touloukian (Touloukian), currently employed by Paulson Investment Company LLC (Paulson Investment), has been subject to at least four customer complaints, two employment terminations for cause, four regulatory actions, and two judgement or tax liens during the course of his career. According to a BrokerCheck report some of the customer complaints concern private placements. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk products.

In 2011 Touloukian was terminated by Advanced Equities, Inc. – a firm that was itself expelled from the securities industry over its sales practices – for selling a private equity investment to a non-qualified investors.

In January 2020 a customer complained that Touloukian violated the securities laws by alleging that Touloukian engaged in sales practice violations related mading material misrepresentations concerning an investment in a private placement. The claim alleges $500,000 and is currently pending.

In January 2020 another customer complained that Touloukian violated the securities laws by alleging that Touloukian engaged in sales practice violations related mading material misrepresentations concerning an investment in a private placement. The claim alleges $200,000 and is currently pending.

Private placement offerings are among the most speculative and costly investment products offered to retail investors. While the size of the private placement market is unknown, according to 2008 estimates, companies issued approximately $609 billion of securities through Regulation D offerings. Private placements allow many small companies to efficiently raise capital. However, regulators continue to find significant problems in the due diligence and sales efforts of some brokerage firms when selling private placements to investors. These problems include fraud, misrepresentations and omissions in sales materials and offering documents, conflicts of interest, and suitability abuses.