+1-888-741-7503

|Richard@frankowskifirm.com

FSC Securities To Pay $1.28M In Ponzi Case

FSC Securities will pay a $1.28 million arbitration award to investors who were defrauded by Aubrey Lee Price, who had feigned his death in 2012 to avoid being investigated for his $40 million Ponzi scheme. FSC, a broker-dealer in the AIG Advisor Group, was alleged by 8 investors to have failed to supervise a number of unnamed brokers, who sold the investors "unspecified fraudulent securities as part of a Ponzi scheme," according to FINRA's arbitration award. John Chapman, lawyer for the investors, claimed that Price and two ex-FSC brokers solicited investments in the primary vehicle for the scheme, which was called the PFG fund. In an investigation by the FBI, the bureau found that Price started making risky investments in 2009, after he had left FSC. Chapman claims that two FSC advisers pushed client money into the PFG fund, both of whom eventually left FSC. “FSC did a really bad job paying attention and supervision. [sic] They were asleep at the [...]

By |August 17th, 2015|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
Read More

Former Broker, Robert K. Smith, Under Investigation

Robert Keith Smith, formerly a broker with Berthel Fisher, has been accused by more than ten of his clients throughout his career of overconcentrating their accounts in private placement securities, including equipment leasing programs, oil and gas investments, and non-traded real estate investment trusts. Smith started his career in 2000 with American General Securities and was registered with the firm until May 2006. Subsequently, he was associated with ProEquities until June 2010 and with Berthel, Fisher & Company Financial Services until June 2014. Numerous complaints against the same broker regarding the same or similar charges of misconduct is unusual in the brokerage industry. The majority of brokers go their whole careers without having a complaint against them. The number of brokers who have more than two customer complaints against them is remarkably low. Accordingly, having over ten customer complaints against Smith, all of which regard private placement securities, is highly irregular. The kinds of products Smith sold to investors on [...]

By |August 4th, 2015|Broker Check, FINRA, Press Releases & News|
Read More

UBS Loses Arbitration, Forced To Pay $200k

UBS lost an arbitration case this week pertaining to the offer and sale of a number of Puerto Rico Fixed Income and Bond funds. The Claimant in the arbitration asserted causes of action for violation of the Puerto Rico Uniform Securities Act, securities fraud, constructive fraud, breach of contract, negligence, negligent supervision, failure to supervise, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, omission of facts, manipulation, unsuitability, common law fraud, constructive fraud, and respondeat superior. The Claimant's allegations related to the her purchase of shares of Puerto Rico Fixed Income Funds I, II, and III and Puerto Rico Investors Bond Fund. In her statement of claim, the Claimant requested rescission of the closed end funds sold to her and $357,000 to $625,000 in compensatory damages, as well as interest, costs, attorneys' fees, and punitive damages. In her pre-hearing brief, the Claimant requested compensatory damages between $339,297 and $702,003. UBS requested dismissal of the claims and expungement of the action. After considering the [...]

By |May 14th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
Read More

LPL Financial Fined $11.7M For ‘Widespread Supervisory Failures’

FINRA ordered LPL Financial to pay $11.7 million in fines and restitution for what it called "widespread supervisory failures" pertaining to sales of complex products. According to the regulator authority, from 2007 to April 2015, LPL failed to adequately supervise sales of particular investments, such as exchange-traded funds, variable annuities, and nontraded real estate investment trusts. Additionally, LPL did not properly deliver over fourteen million trade confirmations to customers. LPL had no system set up to watch the amount of time customers held securities in their accounts or to enforce limits on concentrations of complex products in customer accounts. The systems that LPL did have set up to watch trading activity in customer accounts were ravaged by "multiple deficiencies." For example, LPL did not create proper anti-money laundering alerts and failed to deliver trade confirmations in 67,000 customer accounts. FINRA also penalized LPL for not supervising advertising and other communications, such as brokers' use of consolidated reports. The penalty includes [...]

By |May 13th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
Read More

Fill Out The Form To Receive A Free Confidential Consultation

Consultation

The recoveries, verdicts, favorable outcomes, and testimonials described on this site are not an indication of future results. Every case is different, and regardless of what friends, family, or other individuals may say about what a case is worth, each case must be evaluated on its own facts and circumstances as they apply to the law. The valuation of a case depends on facts, the damages, the jurisdiction, the venue, the witnesses, the parties, and the testimony, among many other factors. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services performed is greater than the quality of the legal services performed by other lawyers.

Disclaimer: Mr. Frankowski is licensed in Alabama,Florida and Texas. He is not licensed in any other state including Nevada and California. Mr. Frankowski has represented investors from all over the country in securities cases including: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.