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Two new rules the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) adopted last year with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval took effect on February 5, 2018. According to FINRA’s Chief Legal Officer, the changes are intended to “provide firms with tools to respond more quickly and effectively to protect seniors and […]
Earlier this month, a lawyer in Denver, Colorado pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud as a result of her role in a nationwide pump-and-dump scheme that reportedly swindled $20 million from approximately 12,000 investors, “many of whom are retirees who lost their life savings.” The lawyer’s guilty plea follows […]
For individual investors who have lost money due to account churning, unsuitable investment advice, overconcentration and other forms of investment fraud, filing for arbitration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the primary means of recovering fraudulent investment losses. Recently, FINRA published a Discussion Paper which highlights some noteworthy […]
Mom and Pop retail investors, known on Wall Street as “dumb money”, are always the last ones to the party. That holds especially true today. In the case of the recent stock market crash, the dumb money retail investors are the ones getting crushed. After sitting in fear on the […]
Regular readers of this blog know that a U.S. government appointed board is struggling to restructure Puerto Rico’s $73 billion in public debt and $50 billion in pension obligations. That’s why it was such a surprise for Puerto Rico to reveal in December that it was sitting on almost $7 […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regularly issues Investor Alerts warning of trends in investment fraud scams and other particular concerns for individual investors. Recently, the SEC published an alert highlighting the risks of making investment decisions based solely upon celebrity endorsements. According to the agency: “Celebrities, from movie stars […]
For individual investors, the risk of losing money to corporate fraud and fraudulent investment scams is a very real concern. While some fraudulent schemes target individual investors generally, many focus on bilking funds from investors who are considered to be particularly vulnerable to fraud. In one recent example, the Financial […]
Not only is the Puerto Rico government carrying over $70 billion in Puerto Rico debt and $40 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, the recent tax bill just signed by President Trump has called for a 12.5% tax on intellectual property income made by companies operating in Puerto Rico. After being […]
While many cases of investor fraud involve scam artists and independent advisors who start their own “wealth management” firms so that they can take advantage of unsuspecting investors, a large percentage of cases also involve the major Wall Street firms. This comes as a surprise to many investors. Many investors […]
Reminiscent of the dot-com boom and bust of 20 years ago, investors are piling into Bitcoin. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, has soared in value, starting this year at $1,000 and will likely hit $20,000 in the very near future. In fact, Bitcoin is now in the “mania” phase, with some people even borrowing money to get in […]