The White Law Group, LLC, a South Florida securities fraud, broker fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection and Chapter 7 bankruptcy law firm based in Boca Raton, Florida.

Posts tagged ‘Provident Royalties recovery options’

Milkie/Ferguson Investments shuts down.

According to reports, Milkie/Ferguson Investments Inc., a small broker-dealer that was a big seller of fraudulent Provident Royalties LLC private placements, has shut down.

Apparently, the vast majority of the registered representatives with Milkie/Ferguson will transfer to Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc.

Milkie/Ferguson filed its broker-dealer withdrawal request with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. on July 26.

According to U.S. Bankruptcy Court filings, Milkie/Ferguson reps sold at least $4.1 million of Provident Royalties preferred shares. That made it the eleventh largest firm that sold those shares.

The figure may be incomplete, however, as the bankruptcy filing counted only about half of the $485 million in Provident Royalties shares sold by independent broker-dealers to investors.

Selling Provident Royalties preferred shares from 2006 to 2009 turned into a death warrant for dozens of independent broker-dealers. At least 23 of the 60 broker-dealers that sold Provident Royalties shares are out of business, many of them swamped by the cost of fighting clients’ lawsuits related to the fraud.

With about 40 brokers and $6.6 million in revenue last year, Milkie/Ferguson was a small firm. Such firms are having a difficult time staying in business due to several factors: equity markets that scare retail investors, rising costs of technology, increased fees from regulators such as Finra and the fallout from failed investments such as Provident Royalties, Medical Capital, Desert Capital REIT, and Behringer Harvard.

The foregoing information, which is publicly available, is being provided by The White Law Group.  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.

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

Two Provident Royalties founders fined by FINRA

It is being reported that Brendan Coughlin and Henry Harrison, two co-founders of Provident Royalties LLC, have been fined $50,000 each and suspended from the securities industry for two years, according to a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

According to the Finra order of settlement, which was submitted by Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Harrison in April and accepted by Finra’s National Adjudicatory Council and Office of Disciplinary Affairs, the two executives failed to make various disclosures regarding where the money came from for payments and distributions to investors in the private placements. They also failed to disclose the extent of the involvement of Provident co-founder Joseph Blimline, who was convicted of running two oil-and-gas Ponzi schemes, including Provident, between 2003 and 2009, according to the Justice Department.

Under the settlement, Mr. Coughlin and Harrison did not admit or deny any Finra allegations.

The money raised for the offerings between 2006 and 2009 was purportedly to purchase oil-and-gas interests such as real estate, leases and mineral rights.  However, Provident Royalties turned out to be nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme.

Dozens of the brokerage firms that sold Provident private placements have since shut down, many failing because of the cost of investor lawsuits and complaints stemming from the failed Provident private placements.

The White Law Group continues to represent Provident Royalties investors in claims against the remaining brokerage firm that sold the investment.  Brokerage firms have a fiduciary duty to perform due diligence on any investment before offering it for sale to their clients.  Given what is known about Provident Royalties, it is clear that the investment never should have been approved to be sold by any brokerage firm.

To discuss your legal options with a securities attorney, please call The White Law Group at 312/238-9650 for a free consultation.

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.

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