Posts tagged ‘Smith Barney’
Chicago Securities Fraud / Investment Fraud Attorney
Are you seeking to recover investment losses incurred as a result of the fraud or negligence of your financial professional or brokerage firm? The White Law Group may be able to help.
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.
The White Law Group exclusively represents investors seeking to recover investment losses incurred as a result of the fraud or negligence of their financial professional or broker-dealer. We review investment fraud cases involving all FINRA registered broker-dealers and have handled cases against most of the major broker-dealers, including Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, Banc of America, Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, UBS, Edward Jones, Raymond James, Securities America, Royal Alliance, RBC Capital and Ameriprise.
The securities cases we review often involve some form of the following type of securities fraud: unsuitability, churning (or excessive trading), unauthorized trading, failure to execute, improper use of margin, and overconcentration (holding off an inordinately large position of one investment).
We review tons of securities cases per year involving all manner and scope of securities frauds, but it seems that many of the cases that we review often involve the same general types of investment products. Interestingly, these investment products are also the same products that pay financial advisors the highest commission. The investment products that we most see being abused in reviewing securities fraud cases are cases involving REITs, variable annuities and variable universal life policies, Promissory Notes, Tenants-In-Common (TICs), and mutual funds (particularly proprietary mutual funds – when a brokerage firm pushes its own mutual funds (i.e. a UBS financial advisor recommending UBS mutual funds)).
To speak to an experienced securities attorney, please call The White Law Group at 312-238-9650. For more information on the firm, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Investigation Into Possible Securities Fraud Claim Involving Smith Barney Financial Advisors Charles Shirley and Rosita “Jo” Kaufman,
The White Law Group is investigating a possible securities fraud claim on behalf an investor involving Smith Barney financial advisors Charles Shirley, and Rosita “Jo” Kaufman.
Specifically, we are investigating whether these Smith Barney financial advisors failed to provide the proper investment advice with respect to the investor’s concentrated position in Colonial Bancgroup. Although the investor was over-concentrated in Colonial Bancgroup stock, it appears that Smith Barney failed to recommend that the investor diversify his portfolio or implement hedging strategies to minimize his exposure.
According to their FINRA Broker Reports (CRDs), Charles Shirley is currently a registered representative with Comerica Securities. Jo Kaufman is a registered representative with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
If you have any information that may assist The White Law Group in its investigation, please contact the firm’s Chicago, Illinois 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.
Investigation Into Possible Securities Fraud Involving Citigroup's ASTA and MAT funds
The White Law Group is investigating securities fraud claims on behalf of investors with investment losses in Citigroup’s ASTA and MAT funds.
Citigroup began offering the ASTA and MAT funds in 2002 to Smith Barney brokerage clients and private bank customers with more than $5 million in liquid assets.
Essentially these funds operated by borrowing money by issuing tax-exempt commercial paper, then used the cash to buy municipal bonds that had slightly higher yields, pocketing the difference.
The trusts then hedged against big swings in interest rates by essentially reversing that trade, using taxable securities. And to bolster returns, they piled on leverage. Citigroup fund managers then bought the riskiest piece of the bonds issued by the trust.
Citigroup’s ASTA and MAT funds had total assets worth about $15 billion, with about $2 billion in capital.
By the end of 2007, the trading scheme employed in these funds was failing. The reason was that the market downturn was hammering municipal bond yields, while the yield on taxable bonds rallied substantially. Smith Barney sold the funds as low-to-moderate risk, low-volatility funds and omitted to disclose the extreme risks associated with the investments.
If you have any information that may assist The White Law Group in its investigation into these funds, please contact 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 the firm’s website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
UBS Promissory Note Securities Litigation
The White Law Group is currently representing two former UBS financial advisors in a litigation matter involving their alleged promissory note obligation to UBS. Based on our preliminary investigation, it appears that these particular financial advisors were forced to leave UBS because UBS did away with a trading program that was critical to their business and that the platform’s elimination greatly impacted their ability to effectively service their clients.
Notwithstanding the fact that these financial advisors were basically forced to leave UBS and their business has suffered as a result, UBS has sent the advisors a demand letter for the amounts they owe on their promissory note agreements and has indicated that they intend to file claims against these financial advisors for breach of contract if the matters are not quickly resolved.
We are investigating whether other UBS financial advisors were similarly forced to leave the firm as a result of the elimination of any trading platforms. Such information would assist us in demonstrating that UBS’s failure to provide these financial advisors with the necessary trading platform to conduct their business was a firm wide issue that impacted many financial advisors.
If you have any information that would assist us in our investigation, please contact our Chicago, Illinois office at 312-238-9650.
The White Law Group is a national securities litigation law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. The firm is intimately familiar with the unique issues involved in promissory note cases, often representing financial advisors in promissory note litigation matters, and having (in the past) handled promissory note litigation cases on behalf of many of the larger broker-dealers (including Banc of America Investment Services, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and Ameriprise).
For more information on the firm, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Possible Securities Fraud Investigation Involving Morgan Stanley Smith Barney financial advisor David Sheinheit
The White Law Group is investigating the trading practices of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney financial advisor David Sheinheit. Specifically, we are investigating whether Mr. Sheinheit inappropriately invested a retired investor’s retirement assets and/ or failed to implement a hedging strategy discussed by Mr. Sheinheit and the investor.
According to his FINRA Broker Report, Mr. Sheinheit is a financial advisor in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Aventura, Florida office. Prior to working for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Mr. Sheinheit was a registered-representative with Citigroup Global Markets and Prudential Securities.
If you have any information that may assist The White Law Group in its investigation into Mr. Sheinheit’s trading practices, please contact 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. 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. The firm primarily handles these cases on a contingency fee. For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.