Investment Litigation Blog

(May 17) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced new regulations on derivatives trading. The failure of the derivatives market was a key cause of the 2008 economic crisis and many investor advocates have called for new oversight and transparency in this $700 trillion (yes, $700 trillion) market, 90% of it controlled by only five…

(December 29) The case of a Florida retiree cheated out of his life savings highlights the tragic depth of financial abuse of the elderly. Ninety-one-year-old Joe Forrest of Sarasota lost $246K to former broker Paul Arnold of Raymond James & Associates. Only the accidental intervention of a caring acquaintance led to an investigation and, ultimately,…

(December 28) Yesterday in its annual 10-K regulatory filing, Hewlett-Packard stated that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the accounting practices that have led the company to an $8.8B write down associated with its acquisition of Autonomy Corp. and a significant drop in HP’s share price in the last few weeks. Autonomy, acquired…

(December 27) FINRA has fined five major U.S. banks $4.48M for their misconduct in underwriting municipal bonds. Between 2006 and 2010 the five banks (Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) underwrote municipal and state bond offerings in California, made payments to the lobbying group California Public Service Association (Cal PSA) for their…

(December 26) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has vacated a $203M ruling against Wells Fargo Bank related to overdraft fees. California consumers had sued the bank under the state’s Unfair Competition Laws, claiming that the bank’s practice of posting a day’s debit-card transactions in order from highest to lowest tended to…

(December 20) Hedge fund manager William Ackman today launched a detailed attack on the network marketing nutrition company Herbalife, characterizing it as a fraudulent pyramid scheme. During his presentation at the annual Sohn Conference, Ackman cited a 2002 FTC decision (“the organization is deemed a pyramid scheme if the participants obtain their monetary benefits primarily…

(December 19) In 2011 the proposed redefinition of a relatively obscure term in a relatively obscure piece of legislation by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) caused such a “tremendous and passionate” outcry from the financial services industry that the Department withdrew the proposal in September 2011. The EBSA will re-introduce the…

(December 17) Two former Zeek Rewards affiliates are mounting the first plausible legal challenge to the receiver in the case, hoping to avoid the receiver’s Ponzi clawback action that would force them to pay back their profits. Former affiliates Trudy Gilmond and Kellie King have engaged Ira Sorkin, a notable former federal prosecutor in Manhattan…

(December 16) The SEC today filed civil charges against the once-powerful Peter Eichler, Jr., and his embattled money management firm Aletheia Research and Management of Santa Monica. At one point high-flying Aletheia had $10B in assets under management and counted the state pensions of Louisiana and Oklahoma among its clients, but declared bankruptcy in November…

(December 14) Crowdfunding advocates and entrepreneurs continue to eagerly monitor the progress of regulators at FINRA, as it develops interim rules to allow the advertisement and sale of equity securities online. “Funding portals” as authorized under the JOBS Act signed in April remain illegal until regulation is complete. The most optimistic projection for having rules…