Legal Matters

German Nino has been charged with stealing $5.8 million from long-standing clients. Nino, 56, is a resident of Weston, Florida. He was a broker-dealer and investment adviser for UBS Financial Services Inc (UBS) from July 2012 through August 2020. The SEC's complaint alleges that Nino stole the investment funds from his clients' accounts and used most of the money on gifts for several women. Nino allegedly created fake account statements, forged signatures on letters of authorization, and altered UBS's to stop notifications of wire transfers to conceal his misconduct. In addition to spending the money on vacations, luxury cars, and private school tuition for his romantic partners, Nino allegedly used the remaining $1.6 million to replace funds he had stolen from another client. German Nino Theft Nino was the financial advisor for a couple who had invested approximately $11 million with UBS. As their advisor, Nino had discretionary authority over several of the clients' securities brokerage accounts and allegedly told [...]

In January 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it awarded four whistleblowers $40 million after voluntarily providing information and assisting the SEC in three separate actions. Two individuals were awarded $37 million after providing key evidence contributing to the SEC's success. The witnesses also continued assisting the SEC and helped the staff identify additional information that advanced the investigation. The SEC issued a third person $1.8 for providing critical, new information that prompted the SEC staff to investigate the misconduct. This witness also continued to assist the SEC with interviews and additional documents. Finally, a fourth whistleblower provided additional information that "shaped staff's investigative strategy" and contributed to the SEC's success. All four award recipients continued to help the SEC after the initial claim. What Is A Whistleblower? The SEC defines whistleblowers as people who voluntarily provide the SEC with original information about a possible violation of federal securities laws. Awards can range from 10 percent to 30 [...]

Brian Pearce (#1334784) was suspended from acting as a FINRA broker and fined $5,000 after thirty-six years of experience. Pearce signed a letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent in November 2021 stating he participated in private securities transactions without disclosure to or approval from his member firm. Brian Pearce Background Pearce was employed by FSC Securities Corporation (FSC) from 2012 to 2018. During his employment, Pearce allegedly solicited two investors to purchase securities of Future Income Payments LLC (FIP), totaling $607,730. FIP promised investors a seven to eight percent rate of return on their investment. FIP purchased pensions at a discount and then sold a portion of them to investors. FINRA Findings and Sanction According to the FINRA report, Pearce received $24,309 in commission from the securities transactions. Pearce’s member firm, FSC, prohibited its representatives from participating in private securities transactions without prior approval from the firm. Pearce allegedly did not notify FSC or receive approval for the transactions. Furthermore, [...]

Credit Suisse Securities has been fined $9 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) for failing to maintain possession or control of billions of dollars of fully paid and excess margin securities it carried for customers and for failures to accurately calculate its required customer reserve- that is the amount of cash or securities the firm was required to maintain in a special reserve bank account. Reserve Failures According to FINRA’s findings, the firm’s failure to remedy coding errors caused inaccurate reserve formula computations. The Firm’s data for noncash borrows were inputted into a computerized system by an automated allocation feed. However, the allocation feed failed to specify which of the firm’s non-cash borrows were collateralized by securities that did not meet the definition of qualified securities. Only non-cash borrows collateralized by qualified securities can be counted as debits in the reserve formula. This led the firm to improperly claim securities, resulting in overstatements of reserve debits. In turn, [...]