Securities Arbitration Lawyers Blog

SEC Charges Essex Capital Corporation and Securities Fraud Recidivist Ralph Iannelli in $80 Million Fraud

June 11, 2018 | Silver Law Group

On June 6, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) charged Essex Capital Corporation and its founder, Ralph Iannelli, with defrauding investors in connection with the sale of over $80 million in promissory notes. Silver Law Group is investigating potential claims against third parties for losses in Essex Capital Corporation.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Iannelli and Essex Capital Corporation induced approximately 70 investors to collectively invest over $80 million dollars in the company’s failing equipment leasing business through two (2) unnamed registered investment advisors. Iannelli and Essex Capital Corporation induced these investors by making false and misleading statements and illusory personal guarantees to these two registered investment advisors.

The first investment advisor, based out of Santa Barbara, California, had been recommending Essex Capital Corporation to its customers since 2002. Between 2015 and 2017, this investment advisor invested over $8.1 million on behalf of over 20 customers in Essex Capital Corporation. According to the SEC complaint, a major reason this investment advisor recommended Essex Capital Corporation customers to invest were due to false financial statements prepared by Essex Capital Corporation’s outside accountant.

NYSE Brings Action Against Edward Wedbush and Wedbush Securities

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Wedbush Securities is in hot water with the SEC, FINRA, and the New York Stock Exchange for a scheme involving its owner and founder, Edward Wedbush. Mr. Wedbush was allegedly employing a manipulative trading scheme involving over 70 accounts at Wedbush Securities. The trading practice, often referred to as “cherry-picking,” occurs when “traders choose to allocate the best performing trades to their own or preferred accounts.”

According to the NYSE’s complaint, Mr. Wedbush’s scheme involved instructing an employee to execute trades in a general account, and then he would later allocate the trades to various accounts that he controlled. No other employees at the firm were permitted to make these “post-execution allocations.” Mr. Wedbush also executed these trades on a separate trading platform that was not used by other traders at the firm.

The firm allowed Mr. Wedbush to exercise this discretion and had no procedures in place to ensure that the allocations were not made for improper purposes, like steering the more profitable trades into Mr. Wedbush’s controlled accounts. NYSE alleges this lack of supervision violated both SEC and NYSE rules. The firm failed to establish and maintain adequate written supervisory procedures, and failed to retain adequate books and records. The firm’s Co-Chief Compliance Officer even raised concerns over Mr. Wedbush’s trading activity, yet the firm still “took no meaningful action.”

Silver Law Group is Investigating Timary Delorme of Wedbush Morgan Securities

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Timary Delorme (CRD #736418) was the subject of a March 2018 regulatory action by the Securities & Exchange Commission. Delorme was employed at the Los Angeles branch of Wedbush Morgan for over 40 years.

In the recent regulatory action, the SEC found that Delorme violated federal securities laws stemming from her involvement in a manipulative trading scheme at Wedbush Morgan. The SEC ordered Delorme to cease and desist from further violating any more federal securities laws as well as barred her from association with any securities broker or investment adviser.

Delorme has also been the subject of a recent FINRA customer dispute alleging $250,000 in damages. In the pending dispute, the Claimant alleges fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract on the part of Delorme. In a past dispute from 2012, a Claimant alleged that Delorme engaged in fraud, deceit, material misrepresentation, and extortion, among other claims, in connection with the Claimant’s account. The Claimant alleged $750,000 in damages as a result of Delorme’s misconduct.

Silver Law Group is Investigating Wedbush Securities, Inc.

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Wedbush Securities, Inc. (CRD # 877) is a financial services and investment firm based out of Los Angeles, California. Wedbush currently has three pending regulatory actions against the firm.

One such action was initiated by the Securities & Exchange Commission in March 2018. The SEC alleges that Wedbush failed to reasonably supervise one of its registered representatives who engaged in manipulative trading for several years. The SEC also alleges that the firm learned of the representative’s activity, but did not have the systems in place to properly investigate it. Specifically, the firm received an email detailing the representative’s role in the fraudulent activity and was aware of multiple customer complaints brought against her, among other red flags alerting Wedbush to her conduct.

The New York Stock Exchange also has a pending action against Wedbush initiated in 2017. The NYSE claims that Wedbush failed to supervise the trading activities of its president. FINRA rules require member firms to create and maintain a system “that is reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations.” FINRA also requires that its members refrain from engaging in fraudulent or deceptive practices with their customers.

What is a Securities Pump and Dump Scheme?

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

A pump and dump scheme is a method used by fraudsters to artificially boost the price of a security that they own shares of in order to make a profit. According to the Securities & Exchange Commission, pump and dump schemes consist of two parts. First, stock promoters will try to boost the stock price by sharing misleading or false statements about the underlying company’s performance. The promoters may use several methods to spread this false information, including cold calling, emailing, and social media. The promoters may claim to have inside information on the company, and will often encourage their followers to quickly purchase shares of the stock.

Then, once the stock price is inflated by this false information, the promoter will put his own shares of stock on the market, selling them at an artificially high price. This harms investors purchasing these shares because they now hold stock that may drop drastically in price once it is revealed that the information is false.

Engaging in a pump and dump scheme is a violation of both FINRA rules and federal securities laws. FINRA requires that its members refrain from engaging in fraudulent or deceptive practices. FINRA also requires its members to “observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.”

FINRA’s Failure to Supervise Rule

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) is the non-governmental organization that regulates stockbrokers and brokerage firms. FINRA rules set out the appropriate conduct for its members. This includes several rules detailing member firms’ requirement to supervise their brokers and advisers.

FINRA Rule 3110 is the main rule discussing supervision. It requires firms to “establish and maintain a system to supervise the activities of each associated person that is reasonably designed to achieve compliance” with both FINRA rules and state or federal securities laws. FINRA requires these procedures to be in written form. A copy of the procedures must be kept in every location where supervisory activities are conducted.

Once a brokerage firm establishes a supervisory system, it must routinely check that the system works properly. To ensure this, FINRA requires firms to assign a qualified principal to each registered person at the firm. The principal is responsible for supervising the registered person’s actions.

Securities Regulatory Authorities Were Well Aware of Problems with Wedbush Securities

June 8, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Wedbush Securities is facing discipline from the SEC, NYSE, and FINRA for a manipulative trading scheme involving its founder, Edward Wedbush. According to a recent article by InvestmentNews.com, however, all three agencies were well aware of problems within Wedbush for many years, but handed down no real, meaningful punishment to the firm. This allowed Mr. Wedbush to continue his scheme for years, hurting many investors along the way.

The complaint filed by the NYSE details a history of Wedbush’s run-ins with the three agencies. In 2015, Wedbush was fined by both the SEC and NYSE for “extensive and widespread supervisory deficiencies,” among other things. Before 2015, the firm “was fined over $2,000,000 by regulators in more than a dozen separate actions involving supervisory failures.”

The NYSE and FINRA’s Department of Market Regulation also conducted an investigation of Wedbush concerning violations of supervisory obligations, books and records keeping, trade mismarking, and other issues. FINRA then referred the investigation to its Legal Section of FINRA Market Regulation; NYSE finally took over the investigation in 2016. This extensive regulatory history shows that all three agencies were on notice of Wedbush’s repeated supervisory failures.

5 Common Financial Scams Aimed at Seniors

June 6, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Educate yourself so you can protect yourself or your loved ones

While the health of your senior loved ones might be the main thing you focus on, there are other areas you can’t ignore, such as their finances. Just as you want to ensure that they are safe when driving, traveling, etc., you need to do the same for their money.

Unfortunately, older people are preyed upon all the time by scammers and con artists, and research shows that due to diminished capacity or simply higher levels of trust, they often make for easier targets. Here are some of the most common schemes to know about:

A New SEC Proposal Aims to Protect Investors

June 5, 2018 | Silver Law Group

The Commission proposes new regulations for financial advisors and dealer-brokers to avoid conflict of interest

While the Department of Labor (DOL) passed a fiduciary rule governing investment advice to retirees in 2016, a federal appeals court struck it down in its entirety in March of this year.

Considered by its advocates to be a positive step in protecting the rights of the elderly, the rule declared that brokers had to agree to a Best Interests Contract (BIC) agreement with their clients before being allowed to earn commissions and other forms of compensation.

Silver Law Group Reminds Shareholders with Investments Losses in Cancer Genetics, Inc. of Class Action Lawsuit and Upcoming Deadline – CGIX

June 4, 2018 | Silver Law Group

Silver Law Group announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Cancer Genetics, Inc. (“Cancer Genetics” or the “Company”) (CGIX) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of New Jersey, and docketed under 18-cv-06353, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Cancer Genetics securities between March 23, 2017 through April 2, 2018, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover damages caused by defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Cancer Genetics securities between March 23, 2017, and April 2, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until June 4, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. To discuss this action, contact Scott L. Silver at ssilver@silverlaw.com or (800) 975-4345 toll-free. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

Cancer Genetics is a diagnostics company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary genomic tests and services to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and response to treatment (theranosis) of cancer. Cancer Genetics went public in 2013 raising approximately $6,000,000. The lead underwriters were Aegis Capital Group and Feltl & Company, Inc.