Broker Lies About Charging $11M In Commissions For Nontraded REITs and BDCs
FINRA charged a broker for lying to a Native American tribe about the $11 million in commissions he charged when he sold the tribe $190 million in nontraded real estate investment trusts and business development companies. Between June 2011 and January 2015, broker Gopi Krishna Vungarala “regularly lied to his customer, a Native American tribe, regarding […]
Former Wedbush Securities Broker Defrauds Elderly Customer
In July 2014, Michael Winegar, formerly a broker with Wedbush Securities, allegedly convinced an elderly customer to pay him $100,000. Winegar told the 85-year-old customer that he would use the funds to create an independent advisory firm through which Winegar would supposedly satisfy the $100,000 debt by providing the customer with free investment advice […]
SEC Reaching End Of Case Against Adviser Who Refuses To Defend Herself
The SEC will reach the end of its case today against a financial adviser who refuses to defend herself in the agency’s in-house enforcement proceeding, noting constitutional reasons. Dawn Bennett, CEO of Bennett Group Financial Services LLC in Washington, D.C., and her attorneys have blown off the proceeding which began on Wednesday and will close […]
Operator Of Two NC Companies Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud
Barry Carlton Taylor, operator of two companies in Franklin, North Carolina, pleaded guilty earlier this week to fraud by commodities pool operator and concealment of money laundering charges, after defrauding investors out of about $2.5 million. Beginning in at least August 2011, Taylor solicited investment funds from at minimum eighteen victims totaling roughly $2.5 million. […]
Futures Trader Pays $260,000 In Restitution For Securities Fraud
Robert Scott Wiens of Lakewood, Colorado, a director a futures trading firm RXM Holdings Ltd., was sentenced last week to a year in prison and paid more than a quarter-million in restitution for securities fraud. Wiens, who pleaded guilty in October, paid $260,000 of $734,140 in court-ordered victim restitution, according to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. […]
Banker Who Faked His Own Death Barred From Securities Industry
The SEC has barred from the securities industry Aubrey Lee Price, an imprisoned former Georgia investment adviser who pleaded guilty in 2014 to a massive fraud that helped bring down his troubled bank and cheated his clients out of millions of dollars. The penalty is inconsequential as Price is expected to spend three decades in […]
SEC Charges Edward Durante With Securities Fraud
The SEC charged Edward Durante, a recidivist securities law violator, with operating a multi-year offering fraud that targeted investors in New England, Ohio, and California. The SEC’s complaint alleges that between 2012 and 2014, Durante defrauded at least 50 relatively unsophisticated investors of at least $11 million through the sale of securities of VGTel, Inc., a […]
SEC Seeks $2.5M From Texas Attorney For Securities Fraud
Last year, the SEC charged a Texas attorney with defrauding investors with regard to two securities offerings, one pertaining to an oil and gas exploration venture and the other a fracking water filtration business deal. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against attorney Gregory G. Jones […]
Alabama Man Indicted On Securities Fraud Charges
Last month, Jesse Morgan Hinson of Troy, Alabama was arrested for alleged violations of the Alabama Securities Act. Hinson turned himself in to Houston County law enforcement officials based on an arrest warrant issued after an October 2015 Houston County Grand Jury returned a four-count indictment. Hinson was released on $75,000 bond pending trial. The […]
FINRA’s Six Tips For Investors In 2016
FINRA wants investors to get off on the right financial foot in 2016 and offers investors these six tips for the new year: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Are your goals current, or have they changed? Setting clear, prioritized goals – each with steps to achieve the goal, […]