You recently left your broker-dealer firm under a cloud with a Form U-5 reflecting that you were terminated for purportedly “violating firm policy with respect to the exercise of discretion in a client’s account.” Now, out of a job and having to contend with damaging language on your Form U-5, to make matters worse you...Read More

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission recently charged several Chief Executive Officers and their companies, along with three penny stock promoters, with securities fraud violations for their alleged offer of illicit kickbacks and market manipulation schemes in connection with certain microcap stocks. One case involved a scheme to make undisclosed bribes to a stock...Read More

It seems like just another day, until you find an unexpected surprise in the mail – a subpoena from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Is this a joke? Mistaken identity? No joke, no mistake – you have received a bona fide, legally enforceable investigative SEC subpoena that calls for you to produce...Read More

Although brokerage firms win the vast majority of their FINRA promissory note and employee forgivable loan (EFL) cases — often obtaining judgments for the outstanding loan balance, interest and attorney’s fees — every now and then the underdog advisor prevails. In one such rare example, Merrill Lynch filed a FINRA arbitration promissory note claim against...Read More

The Law Firm of David R. Chase, headed by former SEC Prosecutor and stockbroker fraud lawyer, David R. Chase, is investigating possible customer claims of unsuitability and over-concentration with respect to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s (Morgan Stanley) representatives’ recommendations of Cobalt International Energy (ticker: CIE) and Seadrill Ltd. (ticker: SDRL). The share prices of Cobalt...Read More

The Law Firm of David R. Chase, headed by former SEC Prosecutor, David R. Chase, is investigating possible customer claims of unauthorized trading and improper discretionary trading by Tom A. Puentes, formerly a broker with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (Morgan Stanley). Morgan Stanley discharged Tom Puentes from employment on October 30, 2014, due to “allegations...Read More

In a huge defeat for the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat insider trading, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of U.S. v. Newman vacated the indictments against two Wall Street hedge fund traders previously convicted and sentenced for insider trading. Finding that no evidence could support their convictions, the Second Circuit —...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, recently filed a lawsuit in federal district court against David Post alleging he generated almost $700,000.00 in illegal profits from insider trading in two pharmaceutical companies that were about to be acquired. The SEC alleged that Post received a tip of confidential details about the impending deals by his...Read More

The Law Firm of David R. Chase, PA, headed by former SEC Prosecutor, David R. Chase, is investigating legal claims against potentially responsible parties for losses sustained by customers of NSM Securities, LLC. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, expelled NSM Securities from the securities industry, alleging multiple violations of securities industry rules. In FINRA’s...Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission is not always successful in its insider trading prosecutions. In June of this year, the SEC lost its second insider trading trial within a week when a jury in federal court found a former chief executive of a technology chip company not liable for insider trading. In 2012, the SEC...Read More