The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) suspended broker James Glenn Tallant (Tallant) for three months and fined him $15,000 including the disgorgement of $8,560.44 in commissions. FINRA alleged that Tallant exercised discretionary trading authority without written authorization in four securities accounts in violation of NASD Conduct Rule 2510(b) and FINRA…
Stephen Douglas Pizzuti (Puttuti) and David Walton Matthews, Jr. (Matthews) were recently suspended for three months by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) over allegations that Pizzuti failed to adequately inquire into Richard’s Pizzuti (Richard) and Daniel Voccia’s (Voccia) outside business activities and involvement in private securities transactions despite his…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Arbitration Panel has awarded damages to investors in the amount of $1.2 million in compensatory damages and cost of fees associated with the arbitration. The alleged claim was asserted against BBVA Securities of Puerto Rico, Inc. (BBVA Securities) and employees of the brokerage firm. BBVA Securities is…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has barred broker Richard Manchester (Manchester) over allegations that his participation in several private placements caused his employing firm to fail to establish an escrow account for several contingency offerings, broke escrow before the minimum contingency amounts were met, and made unauthorized use of…
A leveraged Exchange Traded Fund (non-traditional or leveraged ETFs) is a security that employs debt, or leverage, in order to amplify the returns of an underlying stock position. Leveraged ETFs are generally available for most security indexes such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. A leveraged ETF with 300%…
From January 2003 through the end of 2012, Morgan Stanley enticed over 30,000 customers to invest $797 million collectively into a managed-futures fund called Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Spectrum Technical L.P. The prospectus for Spectrum Technical fund characterized the fund as potentially profitable “when traditional markets are experiencing losses” and…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has permanently barred broker Mark Christopher Hotton (Hotton) alleging that the broker engaged in numerous and repeated frauds including forgery, falsification of documents, conversion, misuse of funds, manipulating account records, churning, unauthorized trading, false testimony, and providing false information and documents to FINRA. FINRA…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a civil enforcement action on October 18, 2013 against Bambi Holzer, a formerly registered broker and investment advisor in Beverly Hills, California. FINRA alleged in its complaint that between February and March 2008, Holzer, then a broker at Wedbush Securities, Inc. in Los…
Tenants-in-common real estate investments (“TIC”) are a more than $1-billion a year industry. However, with all innovative investment products, TIC investments receive their share of complaints from unhappy investors who bought them through a private placement. In FINRA arbitration, these complaints materialize as suitability claims and allegations of negligent misrepresentation. …
This is the most common question a potential client asks during an initial interview. This article is directed to those investors who are wondering if they have a claim but have not yet sought a consultation. Hopefully, this article will provide some insight into what a securities fraud attorney looks…