If you have questions about investments you made with one of these firms, The White Law Group may be able to help.  For a free consultation, please call the firm’s Chicago office at 312-238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

The self-assessment required firms that sold front-end load mutual funds to review their compliance in providing breakpoint discounts to customers during 2001 and 2002 and report those results to FINRA. Breakpoint discounts are volume discounts applicable to front-end sales charges (front-end loads) on Class A mutual fund shares. The self-assessment followed findings by NASD, the NYSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission that nearly one in three mutual fund transactions that appeared eligible for a breakpoint discount did not receive one.

The findings made in the settlements resulted from FINRA’s review of firms’ compliance with the self-assessment requirements. The violations include failing to accurately report information; failing to send timely notices and responses to customers concerning the availability of breakpoint discounts; failing to provide timely refunds for missed breakpoints to customers; and failing to correctly calculate such refunds.

In addition, FINRA found that three firms — Fox & Company Investments, Inc., First Midwest Securities, Inc. and Chase Investment Services, Corp. — failed to deliver breakpoint discounts during a later review period and continued to fail to have reasonable written supervisory procedures in place to assure that appropriate breakpoint discounts would be delivered to their customers during that later period.

In its review, FINRA found that 14 firms — J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons Inc., New England Securities, SunAmerica Securities, Inc., Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, H. Beck, Inc., Leonard & Company, Fox & Company Investments, Inc., Investors Capital Corp., vFinance Investments, Inc., FSC Securities Corporation, National Securities Corporation, Advantage Capital Corporation, Steven L. Falk & Associates, Inc. and Securities America, Inc. — failed to accurately and/or fully complete their self-assessments.

FINRA further found that six of the firms — Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, Intersecurities Inc., SWS Financial Services, Spelman & Co. Inc., Securities America, Inc., and SIGMA Financial Corporation — failed to accurately complete a comprehensive trade-by-trade review of transactions. The trade-by-trade review was a required part of their customer remediation process following the self-assessment.

Six firms — ProEquities, Inc., FSC Securities Corporation, Lincoln Investment Planning, Inc., New England Securities, Gary Goldberg & Co., Inc., and Leonard & Company — failed to provide timely refunds of breakpoint discounts to their customers. In addition, five firms — Leonard & Company, Gary Goldberg & Co., Inc., Financial West Group, GunnAllen Financial, Inc. and ProEquities, Inc. — failed to notify their customers on a timely basis — or failed to notify them at all — of the potential for reimbursement for missed breakpoint discounts. In addition, GunnAllen and ProEquities did not timely respond to customer inquiries about breakpoint discounts.

The names of the firms charged and fines assessed are:

The fines for two firms — New England Securities and H. Beck, Inc. — include other charges in addition to breakpoint self-assessment failures. The additional findings against H. Beck relate to fee-based brokerage violations. Additional findings against New England Securities involve anti-money laundering violations, customer complaint and other reporting violations and supervisory deficiencies.

All 25 firms settled these matters without admitting or denying the findings, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.

If you have questions about investments you made with these firms, The White Law Group may be able to help.  For a free consultation, call the firm at 312-238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

According to his FINRA Broker Report (CRD), prior to working at Proequities, Inc., Alvin Charles Ramsey was a registered representative with Investacorp, Inc., a broker-dealer based in Miami Lakes, Florida.

If you have questions regarding investments you made with Alvin Charles Ramsey, or if you believe that you have been the victim of a securities fraud, The White Law Group may be able to help. The White Law Group is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration and investor protection law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. The firm has over 30 years of experience reviewing securities fraud claims and handles matters throughout the country and Georgia, including reviewing securities fraud cases in Martinez, Augusta, Evans, North Augusta, and Aiken, South Carolina. To contact the firm, please call 312-238-9650. Or, for more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Tucker consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he engaged in radio broadcasts during which he made statements which were misleading and omitted material information, failed to provide a balanced presentation, and/or were exaggerated, unwarranted and promissory. The findings further stated that Tucker placed a print advertisement in a local newspaper that failed to provide a sound basis for certain claims. Finally, the findings stated that Tucker engaged in the public radio broadcasts and placed the print advertisement without a firm registered principal’s approval.

Prior to working at Brookstone Securities, Inc., David Alan Tucker was a registered representative for Proequities, Inc. a FINRA registered broker-dealer based in South Daytona, Florida. According to Tucker’s FINRA Broker Report (CRD), Tucker was terminated from Proequities for violating firm policy regarding advertising. Tucker’s CRD also indicates that he has been named in at least 1 customer dispute related to possible securities fraud/securities violations.

If you have any questions about investments you made with David Alan Tucker, or if you believe that you have been the victim of a securities fraud, the Law Offices of David A. Carter, P.A. may be able to help. David A. Carter is a South Florida securities fraud lawyer based in Boca Raton, Florida. He reviews securities fraud cases throughout the country and Florida, including securities fraud cases in Vero Beach, Melbourne, Daytona Beach, Palm Bay, Sebastian, Cocoa Beach, and Orlando. To contact us, please call us at 561-750-6999 or send an email to contact@carterpa.com. For more information on the firm, please visit http://www.carterpa.com.