Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia filed charges against Lee D. Weiss, alleging that Weiss committed wire fraud. According to prosecutors, Weiss, formerly an investment adviser at Family Endowment Partners in Newton, Massachusetts, stole more than $10 million from clients and used that money for personal expenses, including car payments, country club fees and sports tickets.
The Los Angeles Lakers are the latest company to receive public backlash for receiving money from the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). The Lakers have since announced that they will return the $4.6 million they received from the PPP. According to Forbes, the Lakers franchise is valued at $4.4 billion.
As we all adapt to a new normal in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, FINRA has issued its first arbitration award involving a virtual hearing. FINRA ordered Wunderlich Securities to pay $11.4 million to Dominick & Dickerman and one of its executives. The dispute arose from the sale of Dominick & Dickerman’s wealth management business to Wunderlich in 2015.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused mass-disruption to business across the country. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has been monitoring financial firms to see how they respond to these disruptions. The SEC has also provided guidance to investment advisers on how to handle some of the unique situations that arise due to COVID-19. This guidance can be found on the SEC’s website.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) filed a rule proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) aimed at increasing investor protection. The proposal would allow FINRA’s BrokerCheck to display the same information available on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (“IAPD”) website for brokers who are also registered as investment advisers. BrokerCheck and the IAPD provide a wealth of information about registered persons, including the individual’s disciplinary history. Earlier this year the SEC made changes to the IAPD so that it displays all information found on BrokerCheck for investment advisers who are dually registered as brokers.
A whistleblower who submitted a tip to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) received an $18 million award. The SEC listed several factors on which the award total was based. The SEC highlighted the fact that the whistleblower reported the problem internally multiple times and suffered hardship as a result of that reporting. The SEC also said that the whistleblower assisted SEC staff throughout the SEC’s examination, and the examination resulted in millions of dollars being returned to harmed investors.
Merrill Lynch is the latest financial firm to experience connection disruptions. Robinhood, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have also experienced their own outages as these firms move to a remote workplace. Merrill Lynch brokers nationwide were affected by this outage, which caused them to lose access to their workstations. The firm said that the outage was due to an issue with its internet service provider.
Like all aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on courts and litigation in general. Courts have been forced to change their procedures to adopt to the social distancing required currently. Additionally, as has been discussed previously in the Eccleston Law blog, the pandemic has resulted in a flood of COVID-19 related lawsuits.
Due to the uncertain conditions created by the outbreak of COVID-19, LPL Financial has stopped selling several nontraded real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) as well as some publically traded property interval funds. Interval funds, a type of closed-end fund whose shares are not traded on a secondary market, had been growing in popularity over the last couple years. Interval funds are often comprised, at least in part, by nontraded REITs.
The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), which was supposed to provide forgivable loans to small businesses, has come under fire after it came to light that large, publicly traded companies had received loans through the program. Potbelly, Shake Shack and Ruth’s Hospitality Group, the parent company of Ruth’s Chris Steak House, eventually announced they would return the loans after facing public backlash. Potbelly and Shake Shack each received $10 million from the PPP, while Ruth’s Hospitality Group received $20 million.
You are the best attorneys in the country.
In a significant development for investors in GPB Capital Holdings, the private equity firm will move into receivership following a prolonged legal battle.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. with causing two special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) under its control to make misleading statements to investors before their initial public offerings (IPOs).
The SEC recently charged Ken Leech, former Co-CIO of Western Asset Management, with fraud.
