Securities Lawyers Blog
The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor James Booth (Booth) has taken funds from clients and engaged in certain business activities not approved by his brokerage firm. Booth, formerly registered with LPL Financial, LLC (LPL Financial) out of Norwalk, Connecticut has left LPL Financial and is under investigation by securities regulators. In addition, Booth disclosed at least four customer complaints.
Our firm has been contacted by Booth clients who have been informed that certain funds of clients that they believed were invested with Booth could no longer be located. Upon information and belief, investors have been asked to write out checks to Insurance Trends to invest with Booth and now these funds cannot be located. If you have had this experience with Booth we encourage you to contact our firm for a free consultation.
Booth’s CRD disclosures state that Booth has an outside business activity called Booth Financial Associates and John M Glover Agency.
Our law firm has significant experience bringing cases on behalf of defrauded victims when their advisors engage in receiving loans from clients or selling fraudulent securities sales. Booth’s activities in the sale of unapproved investment products – is a practice known in the industry as “selling away” – a serious violation of the securities laws. 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. Sometimes those investments have some legitimacy but often times these types of investments can end up being Ponzi schemes or the advisor can be engaging in the conversion of funds.