Below is an interesting Reuters piece by Matt Goldstein which quotes Ross Intelisano regarding securities fraud and Ponzi schemes.
Special Report: A fame-seeking Philly trader’s rap falls flat Photo Thu, May 12 2011
By Matthew Goldstein
I couldn’t fight it any more. I started tweeting on securities fraud a few weeks ago. Here is the link: http://twitter.com/#!/rossbi – Basically, I’m curating (hipster word alert) news stories related to Wall Street with a little comment layered over it. Have found it very helpful to follow breaking news and long form stories related to the Street via Twitter. Over-tweeting frustrates me – similar to people who talk too much. Take a look if you’re interested.
Sophisticated investors won a $54 million arbitration award against Citigroup Global Markets Inc. related to the MAT leveraged municipal arbitrage hedge fund. It is by far the largest FINRA award rendered against Citi related to MAT. The award in the matter named Hosier v. Citi also includes $17 million in punitive damages and $3 million in attorneys’ fees.
We have been retained by many MAT investors and have numerous pending arbitrations against Citi related to MAT and it’s sister fund Falcon. This award is a potential game changer.
It’ll be interesting to see if Citi attempts to move to vacate the award in court, especially due to the punitive damages amount. It is very difficult to vacate an arbitration award, however firms have been more aggressive in challenging arbitration awards in recent years. Either way, this is one of the largest arbitration awards ever rendered against a broker dealer at FINRA and a tremendous sign for MAT/Falcon investors with outstanding claims.
FINRA fined UBS Financial Services, Inc. $2.5 million, and required it to pay $8.25 million in restitution for omissions and misleading statements made regarding the “principal protection” feature of Lehman Brothers100% Principal-Protection Notes (PPNs).
Our firm is presently representing investors of the Lehman PPNs against UBS in arbitrations at FINRA. It’s good to see FINRA stepping up and fining UBS in this matter. It’ll be a battle in the many pending arbitrations against UBS for investors to enter the fine into evidence as an indication of wrongdoing by UBS.
According the FINRA press release, UBS had described the structured notes as principal-protected investments and failed to emphasize they were unsecured obligations of Lehman Brothers, which eventually filed for bankruptcy in September 2008.
A Florida FINRA panel awarded $6.4 million to an investor in Citi’s MAT municipal bond arbitrage fund this week. It’s the largest award rendered against Citi related to its MAT and Falcon proprietary fund blow-ups. The case is Berghorse v. Smith Barney (FINRA 08-04466). Although damages claimed on the award were $12 million, sources say the net out of pocket losses were under $10 million, making the award amount over 64% of the losses. The 29 hearing sessions also make it the longest MAT arbitration to date. This substantial award follows a string of 100% NOP awards rendered against Smith Barney late last year. Below is an On Wall Street piece about the case.
FINRA: Citi To Pay Investors $6.4M By Lorie Konish February 9, 2011
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel has ordered two parts of Citigroup Inc. to pay $6.4 million to make up for investment losses tied to a group of troubled municipal arbitrage trust funds.
Rich & Intelisano recently won a FINRA arbitration award which included $100,000 in punitive damages. The case is Stora, et al. v. Strasbourger, Pearson et al. (FINRA 09-01769). We represented a group of investors who were defrauded by a broker dealer and its registered representatives. Matthew Woodruff of our office tried the matter which included five hearing sessions. The panel awarded the claimants $373,968 in compensatory damages, plus interest. The award is significant because pursuant to the Mastrobuono Supreme Court decision, the panel awarded claimants $100,000 in punitive damages, a rarity in securities arbitrations.
Below is a CNBC guest blog by Ross Intelisano on the two year anniversary of Madoff’s arrest.
Madoff Two Years Later – It’ll Never Be the Same by Ross B. Intelisano – Rich & Intelisano, LLP
December 11, 2008 started like a typical year-end work day. Then the phone rang with a hysterical retired widow screaming and crying that she had just lost almost all of her money investing with Bernie Madoff. That might seem strange to many, but we receive calls like this all of the time. Our law firm represents investors who’ve been defrauded by Wall Street. But the phone kept ringing, all day, every day, from December through February. And the numbers were staggering; tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars lost. Generations of wealth were completely wiped out. We knew immediately. This was going to be the largest fraud ever, and by a long shot. And it was. $18 billion. Almost ten times larger than any other Ponzi scheme.
Below is a New York Times piece about the Firm’s $20.6 million arbitration award against Goldman Sachs being upheld by Judge Rakoff in a sternly written opinion.
DealBook – A Financial News Service of The New York Times November 30, 2010, 6:16 pm Goldman’s $20 Million Consequence By SUSANNE CRAIG
Goldman Sachs made its bed. Now Judge Jed S. Rakoff says the Wall Street firm has got to lie in it.
Below is an AP article regarding insider trading which quotes Ross Intelisano.
Probe leads investors to wonder: Is game rigged?
By RACHEL BECK, BERNARD CONDON and PALLAVI GOGOI, AP Business Writers Rachel Beck, Bernard Condon And Pallavi Gogoi, Ap Business Writers Wed Nov 24, 4:13 pm ET
On Wednesday, November 10, 2010, Judge Lifland approved an order outlining the procedures for the soon to be filed Madoff clawback lawsuits. Lax & Neville, LLP, along with other law firms, opposed the Trustee’s motion and asked the Court to stay all proceedings until the Second Circuit ruled on the Net Equity issue. Judge Lifland denied the request. In anticipation of that result, Lax & Neville, LLP, again working with other firms, negotiated with Baker & Hostetler to modify the procedures proposed by the Trustee to better protect the rights of victims. Those procedures were approved by Judge Lifland.
