Legal Matters

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Christopher Dougherty and his firm C&D Wealth Management, of the San Diego area, with running a Ponzi scheme which defrauded investment advisory clients out of $7 million. According to the SEC Complaint, Dougherty offered fifty clients – most of whom were unsophisticated investors – the opportunity to invest in tax-free “private placements” that he touted as having quarterly dividends of 5%. Instead, according to the SEC allegations, there were no private placements and Dougherty was using new investor money to pay dividends to existing investors while also spending the money on his personal expenses, in classic Ponzi-scheme fashion. Dougherty is also alleged to have offered investors the opportunity to invest in his personal farm and real estate business while appropriating those “investment” proceeds into the Ponzi scheme as well. At the Frankowski Firm, we have experience handling claims on behalf of investors who have lost money as a result of a Ponzi scheme [...]

Three executives for the Woodbridge Group of Companies, Robert H. Shapiro, Dayne Roseman, and Ivan Acevedo, have been arrested and charged with conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud as well as money laundering in connection with their roles in the Woodbridge Group’s $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme which primarily targeted elderly investors. The Woodbridge Group of Companies has appeared frequently in this blog space related to the ongoing investigations and penalties involving its vast Ponzi scheme operation. Earlier this year, a federal court judge in Florida ordered the Woodbridge Group and its former CEO, Shapiro, to pay a combined penalty of over $1 billion dollars as a result of the scheme. Woodbridge Group must pay $892 million and Shapiro must pay a $100 million civil penalty and disgorge more than $20 million in ill-gotten gains and interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission had brought charges against the company in December 2017, alleging that the company had spearheaded a $1.2 billion Ponzi [...]

One of UBS’s former top brokers in Puerto Rico, Jose Ramirez, has been sentenced to one year and a day following his guilty plea in a bank fraud case involving Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds. According to the news article regarding the sentence, Mr. Ramirez pled guilty to pocketing $1 million in commissions from customers in the sales of UBS’s proprietary closed-end bond fund products. Mr. Ramirez permitted, and in some cases encouraged, certain of his clients to invest non-purpose loan proceeds into closed-end funds in violation of firm policy and the client’s loan agreements and provided misleading responses to branch management when asked about the activity. UBS has previously made settlement payments to the SEC and FINRA totaling roughly $34 million to settle regulatory charges related to the closed-end funds. It has also paid out nearly $480 million to clients in FINRA arbitration settlements and awards. At the Frankowski Firm, we have experience handling claims on behalf of investors who [...]

Former Securities America, Inc. broker Hector Anthony May, of New City, NY, pleaded guilty last December to running a $7.9 million Ponzi scheme along with his daughter, who served as the controller of his investment advisory firm. Now, Securities America, Inc. has been hit with an $18 million lawsuit filed by former clients who claim that May and his daughter defrauded them of $18 million over 17 years as the financial advisor to the Connecticut family. The lawsuit further alleges that Securities America and Securities America Advisers, Inc. allowed the fraud to occur by failing to adequately supervise May and his daughter. The Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking $18 million, which they claim the Mays converted to their personal use, plus five times that amount in the form of punitive damages. If you or someone you know lost money as a client of Hector May or Securities America due to unsuitable, misrepresented, or unauthorized transactions, please call the Frankowski [...]