The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced charges against Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., (Macquarie) a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited. The SEC alleged that the firm was responsible for underwriting a public in Puda Coal (Symbol: PUDA). However, during the firm’s due diligence, the SEC alleged that…
As previously reported by Gana Weinstein LLP, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in an acceptance, waiver, and consent action (AWC) barred broker Eric Johnson (Johnson) concerning allegations that he misappropriated more than $1,000,000 from at least six firm customers’ brokerage accounts. FINRA had also alleged that Johnson falsified the…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have brought action (FINRA Here, SEC Here) against Timothy Dembski (Dembski) and Walter Grenda (Grenda) concerning allegations that they made false and misleading statements to their clients at Reliance Financial Group (Reliance) an investment advisory firm, in…
The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating a string of customer complaints against broker Shawn Burns (Burns) currently registered Salomon Whitney LLC (Salomon). According to The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) BrokerCheck system, the customer complaints primarily allege unauthorized trading, failure to execute, suitability, misrepresentation, fraud, churning, and…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined firm F-Squared Investments $35 million while admitting wrongdoing to settle charges that it defrauded investors through false performance advertising about its flagship product. As we previously reported, shares of mutual fund provider Virtus Investment Partners Inc. (Virtus Investment) tanked on news that the…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in an acceptance, waiver, and consent action (AWC) sanctioned Arque Capital, Ltd. (Arque) concerning allegations that since 2011 Arque has acted as the managing broker-dealer for an alternative investment – GWG Renewable Secured Debentures (the Debentures) offered by GWG Holdings, Inc, In that capacity…
Your brokerage firm reviews customer accounts for misconduct and what does it find; bizarre and unreasonable trading activity. Maybe dozens of trades are being made every month or an account previously invested in plain vanilla mutual funds is now loaded up with speculative penny stocks and private placements. Whatever the…
Gana Weinstein LLP, a nationally renowned securities and investment arbitration firm, is investigating Richard Martin, and his from firm G.F. Investment Services, LLC for making unsuitable investments to their customers. According FINRA’s BrokerCheck, Mr. Martin has 8 customer complaints served against him and/or his former firms concerning his activities. According to FINRA, four…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in an acceptance, waiver, and consent action (AWC) barred broker Eric Johnson (Johnson) concerning allegations that Johnson misappropriated more than $1,000,000 from at least six firm customers’ brokerage accounts. FINRA also alleged that Johnson falsified the signatures of two firm employees and notarized seals…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) brought a complaint against broker David Escarcega (Escarcega) concerning allegations that Escarcega recommended unsuitable investments in Renewable Secured Debentures of GWG, Inc. (GWG Debentures). Escarcega is not the first Center Street Securities, Inc. (Center Street) broker that has been investigated by FINRA in connection…