Recent Securities Fraud tweets by Ross Intelisano:
FT: Investigators listened in on almost 100 clients of Primary Global. Buyer (and Seller) Beware. http://t.co/GRNEcNs · reply · retweet · favorite
MBIA Drops Merrill Fraud Case.Hard to tell if ML settled with dollars or MBIA forced to just withdraw.Bad news if latter http://t.co/kwPT9t8 2 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite
Below is the Regions press release related to regulatory order for it to pay $200 million due to its actions related to the Morgan Keegan bond funds. Strangely, it announced also that it retained Goldman to explore selling Morgan Keegan. Regions has been extremely aggressive in defending the scores of arbitration claims filed by aggrieved investors of the Morgan Keegan bond funds, even consistently challenging in court arbitration awards it’s lost. A big issue going forward for our clients and other investors with pending arbitrations is how will the restitution fund, the SEC Order, the FINRA AWC and the potential sale of Morgan Keegan effect the cases.
Morgan Keegan Settles Regulatory Issues with SEC, FINRA, and State Regulators Regarding Former Fund Management Business; Regions to Explore Strategic Alternatives for Morgan Keegan
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jun 22, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE:RF) announced today that its brokerage and investment banking subsidiary, Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., and its asset management subsidiary, Morgan Asset Management, have agreed to a settlement of previously disclosed regulatory matters with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and a group of state securities regulators with respect to issues concerning certain mutual funds and closed-end funds (the RMK Funds), a business that Morgan Asset Management divested in 2008.
Below is FINRA’s press release of the $200M restitution order the SEC and FINRA levied on Regions Morgan Keegan (RMK) related to bond funds it misrepresented to investors. Big for investors. We had blogged about this in April 2010 when the SEC charged Morgan Keegan & Company, Morgan Asset Management and two employees with fraudulently overstating the value of securities backed by subprime mortgages. These were the first federal government allegations related to the Regions Morgan Keegan bond funds which lost significant value in 2008. Many law firms around the U.S., including our firm, have been retained by investors who lost money in the Regions Morgan Keegan funds. Big fight will be to get fines into evidence during the pending arbitrations.
Morgan Keegan Ordered to Pay $200 Million to Investors to Settle Allegations Regarding Sales of Bond Funds Sales Materials Made Exaggerated Claims and Failed to Disclose Risks; Supervisory System Failures
WASHINGTON – The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and five state regulators from Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee announced today that each has settled enforcement proceedings against Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. Morgan Keegan will pay restitution of $200 million for customers who invested in seven affiliated bond funds, including the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Intermediate Bond Fund (Intermediate Fund). Morgan Keegan’s affiliate, Morgan Asset Management, managed the funds.
Fraud in the privately traded markets? Aline van Duyn of the FT wrote a fascinating piece over the weekend about the lessons of the Galleon case going much wider than stocks. We agree. Next wave of large and complex fraud will be in non-exchange traded products. Here is the piece.
Lessons of Galleon case go wider than stocks
By Aline van Duyn in New York
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.
