Frankowski Firm Investigating Leavitt F. Sanders And Associated Firms

The Frankowski Firm is investigating the potential claims of people who invested with Leavitt F. Sanders and the firms with which he has been associated (the “Sanders Entities”). These entities include: Leavitt Financial Group, Inc., Sanders Yearian Advisory Group, Inc., Triad Advisors, Inc., TD Ameritrade, Inc., IFC Holdings, Inc. d/b/a INVEST Financial Corporation, and Capital Asset Advisory Services, LLC. The investors, all of whom are of retirement age, depended on the funds they entrusted to the Sanders Entities and allege that the entities failed to act in accordance with the investors’ objectives and with the applicable standard of care. The investors, having suffered catastrophic losses to their life savings, also allege that the Sanders Entities breached their duties and engaged in wrongful conduct. According to the investors, the Sanders Entities made trades and engaged in other investment activities without their authority. Furthermore, they failed to properly keep the investors informed about the trading within their accounts. Specifically, the Sanders Entities [...]

After FINRA’s 2014 Enforcement Overhaul, Are Bigger Fines Coming?

FINRA doubled its enforcement haul in 2014 by collecting about $134 million in sanctions, leading attorneys to wonder if the trend will lead to bigger fines in the future. During the past year, the regulatory authority hit big names, including Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit, with multimillion-dollar fines pertaining to claims that they failed to adhere to FINRA's rules. The indiscretions ranged from banking conflicts of interest to sales practice issues involving retail and small business customers. According to a study by Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, FINRA accrued its largest total of fines since the financial crisis with twenty-five cases collectively earning over $100 million in fines. Sutherland also calculated that the roughly $135 million was more than double the $60 million in fines it imposed on 2013. The total was also much larger than the fines ranging from $28 million to $72 million between 2008 and 2012. FINRA's biggest [...]

Suit Claims Alibaba Failed To Disclose Counterfeit Goods Before IPO

Alibaba, an e-commerce giant out of China, is looking at an increasing number of class action suits alleging that the company downplayed the sale of counterfeit goods during its $25 billion initial public offering. On September 2014, Alibaba conducted its IPO and started trading stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'BABA.' Investor Clair Rand filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that Alibaba's share price artificially inflated because of misleading statements made by company executives to the investing public before and after its listing on the NYSE in SEC filings, press releases, and conference calls pertaining to the company's efforts in fighting the sale of illegal and counterfeit goods. According to the suit, the executives failed to publicly disclose that in July 2014, two months before the IPO, they met with China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and received a guidance regarding "counterfeit and contraband [...]

FINRA Issues Cybersecurity Practices Report & Investor Guidance

This month, FINRA released to publications pertaining to cybersecurity risks at financial firms. The Report on Cybersecurity Practices presents the findings of FINRA's 2014 investigation of cybersecurity issues at financial firms and points out risk management principles and practices to assist firms in decreasing their exposure to cyber threats. The regulatory authority also published Cybersecurity and Your Brokerage Firm, an investor alert designed to “encourage investors to understand a firm’s cybersecurity policies and take personal precautions to safeguard their brokerage accounts and personal financial information.” FINRA's 2014 investigation had four purposes: “to better understand the types of threats that firms face; to increase [FINRA’s] understanding of firms’ risk appetite, exposure and major areas of vulnerabilities in their information technology systems; to better understand firms’ approaches to managing these threats; and to share observations and findings with firms.” It found that the top three threats that financial firms include “hackers penetrating firm systems; insiders compromising firm or client data; and operational [...]