Presidential Brokerage

Advisor Gregory Williams Subject to Multiple Suitability Complaints

January 22, 2019 | by Staff Attorney

According to BrokerCheck records financial advisor Gregory Williams (Williams), currently employed by Presidential Brokerage, Inc. (Presidential Brokerage) has been subject to four customer complaints. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), most of Williams’ customer complaints allege that Williams made unsuitable recommendations in a variety of investments.

In June 2018 a customer complained that Williams violated the securities laws by engaging in unsuitable investments and making misrepresentations. The customer alleges $151,337 in damages. The claim is currently pending.

In June 2018 a customer complained that Williams violated the securities laws by engaging in unsuitable investments, making misrepresentations, making unauthorized transfers, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty from May 2012 through March 2018. The customer alleges $1,200,000 in damages. The claim is currently pending.

Advisor Jason McBride Has Customer Complaints Over REIT Investments

November 13, 2018 | by Staff Attorney

Presidential Brokerage, Inc. (Presidential Brokerage) advisor Jason McBride (McBride) has been subject to at least five customer complaints. According to a BrokerCheck report many of the customer complaints concern alternative investments and direct participation products (DPPs) such as non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and equipment leasing programs. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have extensive experience handling investor losses caused by these types of products.

In May 2018 a client alleged that McBride made unsuitable investments, breached his fiduciary duty, was negligent, and made misrepresentations in the purchase of two REITs and a limited partnership between February 2006 and august 2008. The complaint claims $251,317 in damages and is currently pending.

Our firm often handles cases involving direct participation products, Non-Traded REITs, oil and gas offerings, equipment leasing products, and other alternative investments. These products are almost always unsuitable for investors. In addition, the brokers who sell them are paid additional commission in order to hype inferior quality investments which provides a perverse incentives by brokers to create an artificial market for products that no honest advisor would sell.

Broker Investigation: Robert Blake’s Sale of Tenants-in-Common (TIC) Real Estate Investments

July 10, 2015 | by Staff Attorney

According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Robert Blake (Blake) has been the subject of at least six customer complaints, one criminal activity, and three regulatory actions. Customers have filed complaints against Blake alleging a number of securities law violations including that the broker made unsuitable investments, misrepresentations and false statements in connection with recommendations to invest in several different types of investments including private placements such as tenants-in-common (TICs) interests, variable annuities, and equity-indexed annuities.

Blake first became registered with a FINRA firm in 1974. From 2001 until November 2011, Blake was registered with Presidential Brokerage, Inc. Thereafter, Blake has been registered with Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. in the firm’s Greenwood Village, Colorado office. Blake operates out of business entity called Speer Wealth Management.

Both TICs and investment annuities have caused significant investment losses. The failure of the TIC investment strategy as a whole across the securities industry, TIC investments have virtually disappeared as offered investments. 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.