March 3rd, 2010 
Before You Invest The firm is investigation potential claims against ING Financial Partners on behalf of former customers of Rhonda Breard and Breard & Associates Wealth Management.
Breard, who was registered with ING Financial Partners until February 10, 2010, is alleged to have vanished along with millions of dollars of her clients’ money.
Posted in Finance Fraud 
Tags: Amp, Breard, Customer Complaints, Financial Partners, Ing, Investors, Mexico North, Money Investing, Nasd Rules, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon Washington, Red Flags, Regulators, Regulatory Actions, Rhonda, Securities License, Washington West Virginia, Wealth Management, Wyoming 
Comments Off February 26th, 2010 Before You Invest 
The director of operations for Bernard L.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Billions Of Dollars, Books, Criminal Complaint, Director Of Operations, False Statements, Falsification, Industry News, Internal Revenue Service, Investment Securities, Investors, Madoff, Operations Director, Securities And Exchange, Securities And Exchange Commission, Securities Commission, Securities Exchange, Securities Fraud, Securities Industry, Tens, Thursday Morning Comments Off February 24th, 2010 Before You Invest A recent arbitration panel has awarded three holding companies over $1 million for losses sustained by investments in various Morgan Keegan & Co. bond funds. The funds in question were heavily backed by mortgage-related securities, experiencing a near total loss in the subprime mortgage crisis of two years past.
This is the second time in a week that an arbitration panel has ruled in favor of investors against Morgan Keegan & Co.’s bond funds.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: 1 Million, 5 Million, Amp, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Panel, Bond Funds, Co Bond, Conservative Investments, Degree Of Risk, Investment Funds, Investor, Investors, Losses, Morgan Keegan, Second Time, Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Volatility Comments Off February 23rd, 2010 Before You Invest The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is currently seeking to expand its Brokercheck tool. Brokercheck gives individuals access to professional information regarding registered brokers and firms. The hope is that investors will use this tool to better get to know the people and companies with whom they are placing their money.
FINRA is seeking to expand this information to include customer complaints reported publicly and to extend the public disclosure period for the full record of a broker who leaves the industry from two to ten years. Also, in a move to go beyond the financial world, FINRA seeks to add to Brokercheck criminal convictions and civil and arbitration judgments involving former brokers.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Arbitration, Ceo, Criminal Convictions, Customer Complaints, Electronic Filing, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Finra, Investors, Judgments, Ketchum, Money, Own Accord, Public Disclosure, Registered Brokers, Securities Firm, Securities Industry, Tool Comments Off February 10th, 2010 Before You Invest (Bloomberg) — Investors should sell the U.S. dollar against the Swiss franc amid greenback rallies with price charts showing the U.S. currency’s rise from its November low may be coming to an end, BNP Paribas SA said.
The dollar’s 7.6 percent increase met resistance at 1.0795 versus the franc on Feb.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: 0721, Asset Prices, Bloomberg, Bnp Paribas, Clean Break, Currency, Decline, Dollar, Greenback, Investors, Odds, Percentages, Price Charts, Rallies, Resistance, Retracement, Swiss Franc, Taiwan, Troughs Comments Off February 2nd, 2010 Before You Invest Inland American REITs have proven to be disastrous for many investors. These non-traded REITs, which were sold to investors as a conservative investment with little risk, have turned out to be anything but conservative. Even before losing a great deal of value, these products, by their very nature, were costly for investors. Many such products had a built in commission of up to 15%.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Arbitration, Conservative Investment, Daily Basis, Drawback, Investment Loss, Investors, Nature, Non Traded Reits, Redemption, Risk, Trading Markets Comments Off January 28th, 2010 Before You Invest
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Securities America Inc, the United States is seeing the first instance of a state regulator bringing an enforcement case against a company over private placement deals.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Allegations, America United, Capital Investment, Commonwealth Of Massachusetts, Commonwealth Securities, Current, First Instance, Incontrovertible Evidence, Initial Complaint, Investors, Massachusetts Case, Medical Capital, Offerings, Private Placement, Proper Due Diligence, Repercussions, Securities America Inc, State Regulator, State Regulators, United States Comments Off January 22nd, 2010 Before You Invest The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has reported a significant increase in the amount of cases filed by investors over the past year as compared with years past. For the 2009 calendar year, 7,137 new arbitration cases were filed as opposed to 4,982 filed in 2008; this represents an increase of 43%. Investor claims are not only increasing, but turnaround time for cases has increased as well. The average time for a case that continues through to arbitration was 14 months in 2009 as opposed to 15.7 months in 2008, a 12% decrease in time. Simply put, more cases are going through arbitration and at a faster rate than in the past.
For a complete look at the available statistics, click here.
January 15th, 2010 Before You Invest 
A fund manager who called himself the “Chinese Warren Buffet” has been arrested in Toronto for running a Ponzi scheme which duped investors out of an estimated $30 million.
Weizhen Tang was arrested at Toronto’s airport and stands accused of defrauding as many as 100 clients, with one losing as much as $2.4 million.
The 51 year-old is thought to have operated the scheme between January 2006 and March 2009, which asked for a minimum commitment of $150,000 from investors.
He worked through online business Oversea Chinese Fund Limited Partnership and advertised opportunities in foreign exchanges, options and mutual funds across China and Hong Kong.
The investment adviser stands accused of securities fraud, illegal distributions of securities and unregistered trading in securities by the Ontario Securities Commission.
Mr Tang is due to appear in court on April 19th.
He was supposed to return to Canada from China on December 29th but failed to show.
An investigation into his activities was originally launched by the Toronto police during April 2009.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: 30 Million, Business Partnership, China, Chinese Fund, Distributions, Foreign Exchanges, Hong Kong, Investment Adviser, Investors, Limited Partnership, Minimum Commitment, Mr Tang, Mutual Funds, Ontario Securities Commission, Ponzi Scheme, Running, Securities Fraud, Toronto Airport, Toronto Police, Warren Buffet No Comments » January 14th, 2010 Before You Invest A Goldman Sachs executive has admitted that the company was willing to trade against some of its own clients’ investment ideas, as well as recommending trades that the firm had already put money into.
In an email leaked to the New York Times, Thomas Mazarakis, head of Goldman Sach’s fundamental strategies group, admitted to the ongoing practices to a select group of clients.
“We may trade and may have existing positions, based on trading ideas before we have discussed those trading ideas with you,” he stated.
Mr Mazarakis said his unit was willing to bet against certain instruments recommended by the group, as well as recommending investments that Goldman Sachs had already traded upon.
When quizzed about the disclosure, Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag told the paper that such behavior had been happening for several years and was regarded as “best practice” within the firm.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was holding a series of talks with major investors in an attempt to head off discontent about its planned record bonus payouts to staff.
