According to a FINRA News Release on April 7, 2011: WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced it has sanctioned two firms and seven individuals for selling interests in private placements without conducting a reasonable investigation. The companies whose securities were sold in these private placements were unrelated to the firms and individuals […]
Fraudulent and Unsuitable Private Placements
Under the federal and state securities laws, most securities must be registered with the SEC before they can be solicited or sold to the investing public. In the issuer’s registration statement and in periodic reports filed after a company goes public, the issuer of securities provides detailed financial information which reasonable investors can use to […]
Private Placement Securities
Smiley Bishop & Porter LLP is investigating the fraudulent or unsuitable sales of private placement securities to brokerage firm clients. Click here for a detailed examination of private placements. The lack of transparency in the private placement market has allowed it to become a fertile breeding ground for fraud that has generated regulatory investigations and […]
Ameriprise Financial May Let Securities America Go Under Due To Med Cap and Provident Private Placements
According to a report in Reuters, unnamed sources have stated that Ameriprise Financial is willing to let its broker-dealer subsidiary, Securities America, go out of business. Securities America is in financial trouble as a result of liabilities arising from its sales of $400 million in private placements of securities issued by Provident Royalties and Medical […]
Judge Frees Investors to Pursue Medical Capital Holdings and Provident Royalties Arbitration Claims
Brokerage firms normally want to stay out of court and force their clients to sue in arbitration; yet, Securities America, a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, Inc., went to court in an effort to cram down a class action settlement on its clients who had brought individual FINRA arbitration claims against it. Why? Money (of course). Securities […]
FINRA CEO Expresses Concerns About Investment Products
Rick Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), recently spoke at the CCOutreach BD National Seminar. Ketchum addressed some specific product concerns: Over the last couple of years, FINRA has issued a number of Regulatory Notices related to products that have raised concerns for us from an investor protection standpoint. As […]
