Posts tagged ‘securities regulation’
UBS Fined $12 million by FINRA for Regulation SHO violations and Failure to Supervise
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently said in a release that “it has fined UBS Securities LLC $12 million for violating Regulation SHO (Reg SHO) and failing to properly supervise short sales of securities.” UBS has “neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.”
FINRA alleges that these violations caused “millions of short sale orders [to be] mismarked and/or placed to the market without reasonable grounds to believe that the securities could be borrowed and delivered.”
Regulation SHO “requires a broker-dealer to have reasonable grounds to believe that the security could be borrowed and available for delivery before accepting or effecting a short sale order.” Further firms are required “to obtain and document this “locate” information before the short sale occurs reduces the number of potential failures to deliver in equity securities.”
The charges and resulting fine show that FINRA does not believe that UBS fulfilled their obligation to the regulations or reasonably supervised their short sales to ensure Regulation SHO was followed. FINRA’s investigation found that “UBS placed millions of short sale orders to the market without locates, including in securities that were known to be hard to borrow.” Further FINRA found “that UBS mismarked millions of sale orders in its trading systems.” And finally FINRA stated that, “UBS had significant deficiencies related to its aggregation units that may have contributed to additional significant order-marking and locate violations.”
FINRA executive Brad Bennett emphasized that, “Firms must ensure their trading and supervisory systems are designed to prevent the release of short sale orders without valid locates, and properly mark sale orders, in order to prevent potentially abusive naked short selling. The duration, scope and volume of UBS’ locate and order-marking violations created a potential for harm to the integrity of the market.”
If you have questions related to securities fraud or securities regulations and would like to speak to a securities attorney you may call our 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.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Puerto Rico Securities Attorney – Investment Fraud Lawyer
The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm. Our firm is dedicated to helping investors in claims against their financial professional or brokerage firm.
Our firm is able to help investors who have been the victim of investment fraud throughout Puerto Rico. The White Law Group is able to guide investors who have lost money through the securities arbitration and mediation process, from evaluating potential cases, filing with FINRA dispute resolution (or other relevant organization like the AAA, NYSE or NFA), and finally mediation or arbitration.
The firm has offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. The White Law Group has its offices in those areas because of the benefits of being located so close to the FINRA Dispute Resolutions offices in those cities (FINRA’s Southeast headquarters is located at Boca Center Tower 1, 5200 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33486 – less than one mile from our office, and FINRA’s Midwest headquarters is located at 55 West Monroe Street, Suite 2600, Chicago, IL 60603 – close to the firm’s Chicago office).
Having our offices located so close to FINRA’s regional headquarters has its advantages, particularly since all cases filed in the southeast portion of the United States are administered out of FINRA’s Boca Raton, Florida Dispute Resolution office, and all cases in the Midwest portion of the United States are administered out of FINRA’s Chicago, Illinois Dispute Resolution office.
Although located in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida, The White Law Group handles securities fraud cases throughout Puerto Rico and the entire United States. The White Law Group has the experience to help investors who have been the victim of fraud in securities, investment and financial business transactions. To contact The White Law Group, please call 312-238-9650 or 561-807-6804.
Or, for more information about The White Law Group or securities fraud, you can also visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Recovery of Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds Investment Losses
Have you suffered investment losses in the Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds? If so, The White Law Group may be able to help you recover your losses through FINRA arbitration claims against the brokerage firm or financial professional that recommended the investment.
The Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds sustained massive losses and then were ultimately closed in May of 2010. It appears that a high-risk strategy of naked options trading on the S&P 500 led to investors losing all or most of their investment and the funds’ demise.
The Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds were a part of the larger Sali Multi-Series Funds LP which is an associated entity of Sali Fund Partners LP. Sali Fund Partners is still operating and just recently filed with the SEC for 4 new funds and they have reportedly raised $2.1 billion for one of those funds.
The Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds appeared to have been tied to an annuity offered through Sun Life Financial and then were sold to investors through registered broker-dealers such as SagePoint Financial, Inc. and others.
Brokerage firms have a fiduciary duty to its clients to perform due diligence on any investment prior to offering it for sale to ensure that the investment is appropriate for a client in light of the client’s age, investment experience, and investment objectives.
As such, The White Law Group is investigating how the funds were sold and represented to investors by brokers. If a financial professional did not adequately disclose the risk of the Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds investment then investors may be able to able to recover their investment losses through the FINRA dispute resolution process.
If you invested in the Foresee Strategies Insurance Funds through SagePoint Financial or another FINRA registered broker dealer and would like to speak to a securities attorney about your ability to recover your losses, please call our 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.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.
FINRA Proposes More Disclosure with regards to Private Placement Offering Proceeds
According to canadiansecuritieslaw.com the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently “published proposed amendments to its rules that would require its members and associated persons that offer or sell private placements, as well as those that participate in the preparation of private placement memoranda, term sheets or other related disclosure documents in connection with a private placement, to provide disclosure to investors regarding the anticipated use of the offering proceeds prior to sale.”
These disclosures would provide the investor with a wealth of information about where their money was headed. The information would “include information regarding the amount and type of offering expenses, as well as the amount and type of compensation provided to sponsors, consultants and members in connection with the offering.”
The documents providing this information would have to be provided to FINRA within 15 days of the first sale. Even with the proposed changes, some offerings would not have to follow these new regulations. These exceptions to the rule would appear to be for private placements being offered exclusively to qualified purchasers or qualified institutional buyers.
FINRA’s goal for these proposed rule changes is to protect investors. FINRA was quoted as stating that the changes would, “provide important investor protections in connection with private placements without unduly restricting capital formation through the private placement offering process” and further helping to “identify problematic terms and conditions in private placements, thereby helping to detect and prevent fraud in connection with private placements.”
If you are concerned about an investment you made in a private placement or have questions about FINRA rules and would like to speak to a securities attorney please call our 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.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Advisors “…wish they knew more…” about Alternative Investments
According to a recent poll and article from investmentnews.com 52% of financial advisors polled said they were not “…as knowledgeable about [alternative investments] as [they’d] like to be.
A wide range of investment vehicles may be considered alternative “…ranging from real estate, to managed futures, to structured products or private equity.” Given that there are many types of alternative investments it is very possible for advisors to be well-versed in one type of alternative investment but not others.
However, the investmentnews.com makes an interesting point about their survey when they note that, “Even though the majority of advisers are not as well-versed on the subject of alternative investments as they might like, few are deterred from discussing them with clients — or actually putting them to use in their clients’ portfolios.”
According to the survey, 88% of advisors asked said they feel comfortable having discussions with their clients about alternative investment vehicles and 89% of them currently have clients invested in alternative investments.
This disconnect, highlighted by the investmentnews.com article, between the knowledge about alternative investors by financial advisers and their willingness to discuss or invest their clients in such vehicles is worth monitoring.
Alternative investments are currently a hot topic in the world of securities arbitration. Alternative vehicles such as REITs and structured products account for a large portion of the securities arbitration cases we see here at The White Law Group. Additionally, alternative investments commonly offer higher commissions to brokers who sell the products which may in some cases explain why the advisors have recommended those investments.
If you are concerned about an alternative investment that you have bought and would like to speak to a securities attorney please call our 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.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.