Lax & Neville was recently retained by an investor to file a claim regarding alleged sales practice abuses by Gilford Securities Inc. (“Gilford”), a broker-dealer, and Adam Coblin (“Coblin”), CRD# 2005853, one of its former financial advisors who resigned in July 2013 while under review by Gilford for customer complaints. We believe that Coblin may have engaged in similar sales practice abuses with many of his customers and are currently investigating whether Coblin churned and charged excessive commissions in his customers’ brokerage accounts, and whether he sold unsuitable securities such as Delcath Systems, Prospect Global Resources or Vivus Inc. to customers. It should be noted that according to Coblin’s FINRA BrokerCheck Report, several customers have recently filed customer complaints against him based on alleged sales practice abuses. For example, one of his former customers filed an arbitration claim against him and Gilford in November 2012 alleging compensatory damages of $910,555 as a result of alleged unsuitable investments and excessive trading. Gilford settled that matter for $375,000 in September 2013. Another customer filed an arbitration claim against Gilford and Coblin in October 2013 alleging compensatory damages of $133,000 as a result of alleged misrepresentations, unsuitability, unauthorized trading and other sales practice abuses. That claim and other customer complaints against Coblin are still pending.
If you are a current or former customer of Gilford or Coblin and believe sales practice abuses occurred relating to your account, please contact Lax & Neville LLP at (212) 696-1999 for a free consultation.