Broker Misrepresentation

Investment Fraud: The Ponzi Scam, Morgan Keegan and Bernie Madoff (Part 1)

The Morgan Keegan division of Regions Financial Corp. is on the tip of every Tampa lawyer’s tongue right now as the recent $200 million dollar settlement for investment fraud came down earlier this year. Morgan Keegan reached a settlement with FINRA and SEC regulators after it was accused of running a highly effective Ponzi scam. [1] In […]

Investment Fraud: The “Front Running” Scam

Font Running seems to be the most prolific type of investment fraud out there. Unfortunately, computer programs designed to stop front running have been manipulated to proliferate this practice of stock broker fraud. Front running is when a broker or brokerage firm commits investment fraud by using insider knowledge of when a company will be […]

What is Churning and how can it affect me?

Churning is a term used to describe the practice of “excessive buying and selling of securities in your account by your broker, for the purpose of generating commissions and without regard to your investment objectives.” [1] Since stock brokers earn commissions based on how many trades they make, this Tampa lawyer can tell you it […]

The “Pump and Dump” Scheme

In last weeks blog, “The Stockbroker Scam That Almost Got My Mother!”, I mentioned the “pump and dump” scheme. A pump and dump scam usually happens with penny stock trades. A stock that sells for pennies is purchased and hyped by a “research” firm. When the price goes up from the fraudulent hyping, the originator of […]

The Stockbroker Scam That Almost Got My Mother!

You know the emails. We all get them. Shouting at the top of their keyboard lungs, “The Biggest Revelation Since the Internet!” They claim gloom and doom for everyone else, and amazing profits for you if you are only smart enough to get in on the deal before it’s too late. Like me, when you […]

Structured Products- Protect your self

A large part of securities arbitration disputes concerns fraudulent products which are both assembled and marketed by brokerage firms to their unsuspecting clientele.  These fraudulent products are often what are referred to as “structured products”.   A structured product, is generally a pre-packaged investment strategy based on derivatives, such as a single security, a basket of securities, options, indices, commodities, debt issuance and/or […]

Churning and Excessive Trading

As we continue to explore the many faces of securities fraud, we turn our attention to an age old practice called churning. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, churning is defined as excessive buying and selling of securities by your broker, to generate commissions without regard for your investment objectives.[1] You may have also […]

Selling Away

Cases of “selling away” by investment brokers are on the rise. Selling away is the illegal practice of a stock broker soliciting the sale of securities that are not offered or authorized by the broker-dealer firm. Solicitations by the rogue broker may include a number of investment vehicles, unusually offering higher returns than traditional securities. […]

Broker Misrepresentations 2

In our previous post, we started a discussion about a common form of securities fraud known as broker misrepresentation. We defined broker misrepresentation as false representation of facts and/or the omission of facts to a client, in order to influence the client to act. Continuing with this theme let’s look at another example that was […]