Oil and Gas Investments

Broker Michael Mashak in Equitable Advisors, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

February 6, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

Currently financial advisor Michael Mashak (Mashak), currently employed by brokerage firm Equitable Advisors, LLC has been subject to at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint. According to a BrokerCheck reports most of the recent customer complaints concern either corporate debt securities or alternative investments such as direct participation products (DPPs) like business development companies (BDCs), non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and private placements. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on November 21, 2023.

Claimant alleges REIT purchased was unsuitable.

Broker Hans Sharma in Innovation Partners LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

February 6, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

Currently financial advisor Hans Sharma (Sharma), currently employed by brokerage firm Innovation Partners LLC has been subject to at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint. According to a BrokerCheck reports most of the recent customer complaints concern either corporate debt securities or alternative investments such as direct participation products (DPPs) like business development companies (BDCs), non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and private placements. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint on February 24, 2023.

Bought on 12/12/2024, American Realty Capital, hospitality Trust (REIT), Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker James Geake in Firm Madison Avenue Securities, LLC

February 5, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

Currently financial advisor James Geake (Geake), currently employed by brokerage firm Madison Avenue Securities, LLC has been subject to at least 3 disclosable events. These events include 3 customer complaints. According to a BrokerCheck reports most of the recent customer complaints concern either corporate debt securities or alternative investments such as direct participation products (DPPs) like business development companies (BDCs), non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and private placements. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on December 11, 2024.

Claimants allege unsuitable recommendations of alternative investments.

Broker Michael Tannery in Independent Financial Group, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

February 5, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

Currently financial advisor Michael Tannery (Tannery), currently employed by brokerage firm Independent Financial Group, LLC has been subject to at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint. According to a BrokerCheck reports most of the recent customer complaints concern either corporate debt securities or alternative investments such as direct participation products (DPPs) like business development companies (BDCs), non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), oil & gas programs, annuities, and private placements. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP have represented hundreds of investors who suffered losses caused by these types of high risk, low reward products.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $150,000.00 on January 03, 2025.

The statement of claim does not contain any specific information on which investments were not suitable, just that the complexities of the investments were not fully explained, and the risks were not disclosed in a fair and balanced manner (including their illiquidity, lack of transparency and the nature of a complex alternative investment such as a reit).

Broker William Campbell Accused of Making Unsuitable Recommendations

April 22, 2021 | by Staff Attorney

Broker William Campbell, currently employed at David Lerner Associates, Inc., (David Lerner) has been subject to at least four customer complaints during the course of his career. All four complaints allege Campbell of making unsuitable trading recommendations.

According to a BrokerCheck report, in August 2020, a customer made allegations against Campbell for unsuitability and sought approximately $90,000 in damages. Furthermore, in June 2019 another customer alleged that Campbell made unsuitable trading recommendations. The Claimant in this case is seeking damages in the amount of $120,000 and the claims involve a private placement.

Recently, our firm has received customer complaints concerning the sale of private placements being underwritten and offered by David Lerner in Energy 11 and Energy Resources 12 oil & gas partnerships. These funds have cut distributions and appear to have lost a substantial amount of investor capital.

Energy 11 was formed to enable investors to invest in oil and gas properties located onshore in the United States. The funds’ stated primary objectives are to acquire producing and non-producing oil and gas properties with development potential, and to enhance the value of those properties through drilling and other development activities. The fund plans to after five to seven years to engage in a liquidity transaction in which they will sell properties and distribute the net sales proceeds to investors, merge with another entity or list common units on a national securities exchange.

Oil & Gas Investment Funds See Dramatic Declines – Investor Loss Recovery

June 9, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments. Many investors do not realize that many of these investments contain futures contracts and contain derivative features that warp and distort the value of these funds and make them unsuitable for long-term holdings. Investors who have been recommended to buy and hold these products by their financial advisors may have viable claims for investment recovery.

These oil and gas investment funds include:

United States Oil Fund LP – USO
ProShares K-1 Free Crude Oil Strategy ETF – OILK
Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF – BDRY
Credit Suisse X-Links Crude Oil Shares Covered Call ETN – USOI
SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF – XES
iShares U.S. Oil Equipment & Services ETF – IEZ
United States Brent Oil Fund LP – BNO
VanEck Vectors Oil Services ETF – OIH
InfraCap MLP ETF – AMZA
Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF – PSCE
Invesco Dynamic Oil & Gas Services ETF – PXJ
iPath Pure Beta Crude Oil ETN – OLEM
United States Gasoline Fund LP – UGA

Some of these products listed utilize investments in futures contracts for natural gas, crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, and other petroleum-based fuels that are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, ICE Futures or other U.S. and foreign exchanges. These investments warn that the price relationship between the near month contract to expire and the next month contract to expire that compose the Benchmark Futures Contract will vary and may impact both the total return over time of the investments net-asset-value (NAV), as well as the degree to which its total return tracks other oil and gas related price indices’ total returns.

Duff & Phelps Select Energy MLP Fund – Investor Loss Recovery

May 29, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). Duff & Phelps Select Energy MLP and Midstream Energy Fund Inc. (NYSE: DSE) is a mutual fund that invests primarily in MLPs.

In the past year the Duff & Phelps Select Energy MLP has returned a -91% return as of March 31, 2020. In fact, in mid-2015 the fund had a price as high a $14.18 a share and has fallen all the way to a low of $.2 a share.

As a background, MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

Kayne Anderson MLP/Midstream Investment Company – Investor Loss Recovery

May 19, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). Kayne Anderson MLP/Midstream Investment Company (NYSE: KYN) is a non-diversified, closed-end fund with an investment objective to obtain a high after-tax total return for its shareholders by investing at least 85% of our total assets in energy-related master limited partnerships and in other companies that operate assets used in the gathering, transporting, processing, storing, refining, distributing, mining or marketing of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, refined petroleum products or coal.

Year to date Kayne Anderson MLP/Midstream Investment Company has returned a -57.97% return as of April 30, 2020.

As a background, MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

ClearBridge MLP and Midstream Fund – Investor Loss Recovery

May 19, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating investor claims of unsuitable investments in oil and gas related products. Our firm is currently representing a number of investors who lost substantial savings due to poor advice to concentrate holdings in speculative commodities investments like master limited partnerships (MLPs). ClearBridge MLP and Midstream Fund, Inc. (NYSE: CEM) is a mutual fund that provides a single investment for accessing a portfolio of energy-related MLPs and midstream entities.

Year to date ClearBridge MLP and Midstream Fund has returned a -68.73% return as of April 30, 2020. The price of the fund has fallen to $3.19.

As a background, MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. There are about 130 MLPs trading on major exchanges that focus on energy related industries and natural resources.

Wall Street loves MLPs because they provide high yields to investors and require companies to pay Wall Street in order to continue to grow. In 2013 banks earned fees of $890.3 million from MLP issuance. Bloomberg quoted an analyst stating that “MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” because “[t]hey’re fee machines.” Naturally, in order to entice investors to continue to invest in MLPs Wall Street pumps up MLPs every chance they get. According to Bloomberg, in May 2014 “[a]nalysts predict that 93 of the 114 MLPs in existence will rise in value in the next year…” Astonishingly, “all but five MLPs are recommended by the majority of the analysts who cover them.” At that time professionals without conflicts called MLPs “the next great investment debacle” and warned that “many MLP shareholders…may not understand what they’ve gotten into.”

Mewbourne Energy Partners Investor Loss Recovery

May 18, 2020 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area.

Mewbourne Oil Company claims on its website to have grown into one of the more prominent independent oil and natural gas producers in the Anadarko and Permian Basins of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The company focuses its efforts in the Anadarko and Permian Basins. Mewbourne clamis that the Anadarko and Permian Basins have produced more than 42 billion barrels of oil and 220 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and contain many of the largest oil and natural gas fields in the United States.

Mewbourne raises funds from investors through brokerage firms by selling interests in private placement partnerships. Those offerings include:

Mewbourne Energy Partners 11-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 12-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 13-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 14-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 15-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 16-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 17-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 18-A, L.P.

Mewbourne Energy Partners 19-A, L.P.