Dempsey Lord Smith

Broker Gregory Gibson in Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

March 27, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Gregory Gibson (Gibson), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least 3 disclosable events. These events include 3 customer complaints, alleging that Gibson recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on February 19, 2025.

Unsuitable recommendations, negligence, misrepresentation and omissions of material facts, and breach of fiduciary duty

Broker Ernest Smith in Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

March 11, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Ernest Smith (Smith), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Smith recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on October 17, 2024.

UNSUITABILITY, BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY, AND NEGLIGENCE

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker Joel Goldberg in Firm Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC

March 10, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Joel Goldberg (Goldberg), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Goldberg recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on October 17, 2024.

UNSUITABILITY, BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY, ACCOUNTANT MALPRACTICE AND NEGLIGENCE.

Broker Jerry Dempsey in Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

March 10, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Jerry Dempsey (Dempsey), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Dempsey recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on October 17, 2024.

UNSUITABILITY, BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY, AND NEGLIGENCE

Broker John Lord in Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

March 10, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker John Lord (Lord), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least 3 disclosable events. These events include 3 customer complaints, alleging that Lord recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on October 17, 2024.

UNSUITABILITY, BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY, AND NEGLIGENCE

Broker James Stockton in Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC Firm Has Customer Complaint

February 28, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that Broker James Stockton (Stockton) has been accused by investors of engaging in fraudulent misappropriation of their funds. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), it appears that Stockton was employed by Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC at the time of the activity. If you have been a victim of Stockton’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on November 06, 2024.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Stockton consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he invested $1,430,000 through private securities transactions and did not provide advance written notice to his member firm to engage in these transactions. The findings stated that Stockton did not make these investments through his firm as they were not securities offered by the firm, and the transactions did not involve firm customers. Stockton also falsely responded to a question about whether he had participated in private securities transactions without prior written approval on a firm compliance questionnaire.

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker Rajesh Jyotishi in Firm Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC

February 2, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Rajesh Jyotishi (Jyotishi), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Jyotishi recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint on November 06, 2024.

Unsuitability, misrepresenting investments and breach of fiduciary duty

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker Duvan Brock in Firm Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC

February 2, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Duvan Brock (Brock), currently associated with Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Brock recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $45,000.00 on December 26, 2024.

Customer alleges improper sales practice of an unsolicited trade that they brought to and sought out RR to buy.

Julius Kenney Formerly of LPL Financial Barred Over Outside Business Activities Investigation

August 11, 2015 | by Staff Attorney

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently sanctioned and barred broker Julius Kenney (Kenney) concerning allegations Kenney refused cooperate with requests made by FINRA in connection with an investigation into possible outside business activities. Such activities may, under certain circumstances also involve investment transactions referred to as “selling away” in the industry. According to FINRA BrokerCheck records Kenney has disclosed that he operates as a LPL Financial LLC (LPL Financial) broker under the DBA Frank Kenney Wealth Management in Calhoun, Georgia. There is one customer complaint against Kenney alleging that the broker solicited an investment in a business referred to as Mellow Mushroom in or around October 2013.

Kenney entered the securities industry in 2008, when he became associated with Edward Jones. Thereafter, Kenney became associated with LPL Financial in 2011 before leaving for Dempsey Lord Smith, LLC in July 2012 through September 2013. Finally, in September 2013, Kenney came back to LPL Financial until his termination in June 2015. On May 22, 2015, LPL Financial filed a termination notice (known as a Form U5) with FINRA disclosing that Kenney was discharged from the firm for participating in an undisclosed outside business activity.

The conduct alleged against Kenney may lead to “selling away” securities violations. In the industry the term selling away refers to when a financial advisor solicits investments in companies, promissory notes, or other securities that are not pre-approved by the broker’s affiliated firm. However, even though the brokerage firm claim ignorance of their advisor’s activities, under the FINRA rules, a brokerage firm owes a duty to properly monitor and supervise its employees in order to detect and prevent brokers from offering investments in this fashion. In order to properly supervise their brokers each firm is required to have procedures in order to monitor the activities of each advisor’s activities and interaction with the public. Selling away often occurs in brokerage firm that either fail to put in place a reasonable supervisory system or fail to actually implement that system. Supervisory failures allow brokers to engage in unsupervised misconduct that can include all manner improper conduct including selling away.

Atlas Energy Oil and Gas Investments: Risks Investors Should Know Part II

December 17, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

This article follows up on a recent article reported in Reuters concerning Atlas Energy LP’s private placement partnerships in oil and gas. Atlas Resources LLC, a subsidiary the energy group, has filed documents with the SEC for Atlas Resources Series 34-2014 LP stating that it seeks to raise as much as $300 million by Dec. 31 of 2014. The deal allows investors to participate in investments where advances in drilling technology have turned previously inaccessible reservoirs of oil into viable prospects. In addition, Atlas promises to invest up to $145 million of its own capital alongside investors.

In the last article we explored how the house seems more likely to win on these deals over investors. But beyond the inherent risks with speculating on oil and gas and unknown oil deposits most investors don’t realize the deals are often unfair to investors. In a normal speculative investment as the investment risk goes up the investor demands greater rewards to compensate for the additional risk. However, with oil and gas private placements the risks are sky high and the rewards simply don’t match up.

In order to counter this criticism, issuers say that the tax benefits of their deals where the investor can write off more than 90 percent of their initial outlay the year they make it helps defray the risk and increase the value proposition. First, the same tax advantage claims are often nominal compared to the principal risk of loss of the investment as seen by Puerto Rican investors in the UBS Bond Funds who have now seen their investments decline by 50% or more in some cases. Second, often times brokers sell oil and gas investments indiscriminately to the young and old who have lower incomes and cannot take advantage of the tax benefits.