Tag: investment losses

Hanley Law Investigates Jeffrey Palish Ex-Wells Fargo Rep Barred for Stealing from Elderly

Posted by finralawyer on February 28, 2018 with 0 Comment

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) Jeffrey Palish has been barred from the industry for receiving more than $180,000 from an elderly client “with no intent or ability to repay” her. Wells Fargo terminated Mr. Palish’s registration in November 2017 according the FINRA Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC 2917056152891).

It has been reported that Mr. Palish, who was a resident of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., was arrested by detectives from the Bergen County’s prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s office allegedly received information in November that Mr. Parish was believed to have stolen at least $600,000 from elderly clients over four years, and that he had not made payments on a $100,000 loan he received from two clients. According to FINRA, starting in or around 2015, while registered with Wells Fargo, Palish received money from an elderly Wells customer for his personal use and he accepted the money with no intent or ability to repay the customer. Over approximately three years, Palish allegedly received more than $180,000 from the client. As a result, FINRA found that Palish converted customer funds, in violation of FINRA Rules 2150 and 2010.

Palish entered the securities industry in 1986 when he became registered as a General Securities Representative. Mr. Palish began his securities career in 1986 at McLaughlin, Piven, Vogel Securities and moved to UBS PaineWebber in 1993. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2002 and Wells Fargo in 2010. Wells Fargo terminated Palish’s registration in November 2017 because Wells Fargo learned that Palish had accepted money from an elderly customer and that he had made misstatements to the firm regarding those transactions.

HANLEY LAW

Hanley law represents individual investors nationwide with significant losses in their portfolios, retirement plans or investment accounts. The firm is dedicated to assisting investors to recover losses suffered by unsuitability, over-concentration, fraud, misrepresentation, self-dealing, unauthorized trades or other wrongful acts, whether intentional or negligent. The firm handles cases against the major Wall Street broker dealers, including Wells Fargo.

Let Hanley Law work for you. Call (239) 649-0050 or contact the firm through our Website to arrange a free confidential consultation with an attorney to discuss your experiences with your stock broker which resulted in investment losses.

5 Most Common Types of Fraud Identified by FINRA

Posted by finralawyer on November 14, 2017 with 0 Comment

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a new Investor Alert called Avoiding Investment Scams which described common types of fraud. Below are the 5 most common types of fraud identified by FINRA:

Pyramid Schemes: Fraudsters claim that they can take a small investment and turn it into large profits in a short amount of time. However, participants make money solely by recruiting new participants and the schemes quickly fall apart when new participants are no longer available. Pyramid schemes may appear to be legitimate multi-level marketing programs.
2. Ponzi Schemes: Fraudsters recruit new investors and use their funds to pay earlier-stage investors, instead of investing the funds as promised. This type of scam is named after Charles Ponzi, who in the 1920s tricked thousands of investors to place their funds in a price arbitrage scheme involving postage stamps. Ponzi schemes are similar to pyramid schemes with the exception that in ponzi scheme investors do not have to recruit new investors to earn a share of profits. Ponzi Schemes usually collapse when new investors cannot be attracted or when too many investors try to cash out.
3. Pump-and-Dump: Fraudsters buy shares of a low priced stock from an unknown company and then trump up interest in the stock to increase the stock’s price. Investors are tricked into believing they are getting a good deal and create buying demand at high prices. At this point the fraudsters sell their shares at the high prices and disappear, leaving the unsuspecting investors with worthless stock. Previously, these schemes were conducted by cold callers, facsimiles or online newsletters, but now the most common medium is through spam emails or text messages.
4. Advance Fee Fraud: The scams starts by an offer placed to buy a worthless stock for a high price, but to facilitate the deal the investor must send a fee for the service. Once the fee is sent, the investor never hears from the fraudster again.
5. Offshore Scams: These scams include any of the above mentioned scams and may also involve Regulation S. Offshore scams can be difficult for U.S. law enforcement agencies to investigate or rectify.

If you and have suffered investment losses, please contact the Hanley Law to explore your legal options. The Hanley Law is dedicated to helping investors who have been victims of securities fraud. If you have lost money as a result of securities fraud, you may be able to recover your financial losses. Contact us today toll free at (239) 649-0050 for a free initial consultation.

FINRA Issues New Investor Alert, Avoiding Investment Scams

Posted by finralawyer on November 14, 2017 with 0 Comment

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a new Investor Alert called Avoiding Investment Scams which describes common types of tactics employed by fraudsters to solicit investors. FINRA advises of the following seven (7) red flags investors should look out for:

Guarantees: Be wary of anyone who predicts how investments will perform.
2. Unregistered Products: Many investments scams involve unlicensed individuals selling unregistered products.
3. Overly Consistent Returns: Investments that provide steady returns regardless of current market conditions.
4. Complex Strategies: Avoid anyone who cannot clearly explain their investment technique.
5. Missing Documentation: A stock should have a prospectus or offering circular, if not the product may be unregistered.
6. Account Discrepancies: Unauthorized trades, missing funds or other problems with your account statements could indicate churning or fraud.
7. Pushy Salesperson: No reputable investment professional should push you to make an immediate decision about an investment.

Identifying Risk Factors that Make Investors Susceptible to Fraud

Posted by finralawyer on November 14, 2017 with 0 Comment

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a new Investor Alert called Avoiding Investment Scams which described risk factors that make investors susceptible to investment fraud and provides tips to avoid being scammed.

FINRA has identified the 5 following risk factors for investors falling prey to fraudsters:

Owning high-risk investments.
2. Relying on friends, family, co-workers for advice.
3. Being open to new investment information.
4. Failing to check the background of an investment or investment professional.
5. Inability to spot persuasion tactics used by fraudsters.

FINRA urges investors to ask questions about investments and investment professionals by doing the following:

Perform a Background Search on the Investment Professional: Ask if the investment professional is licensed to sell you the investment and confirm which regulator issued their license. Additionally, ask if and when their license has ever been revoked or suspended. A legitimate securities salesperson must be properly licensed, and his or her firm must be registered with FINRA, the SEC or a state securities regulator—depending on the type of business the firm conducts. An insurance agent must be licensed by the state insurance commissioner where he or she does business. To verify the investment professional’s response use FINRA BrockerCheck, contact National Association of Insurance Commissioners or contact North American Securities Administrators Association.
Check Out Investments: Ask whether the investment is registered and, if so, with which regulator. Usually companies register their securities before they can sell shares to the public. You can find out whether a product is registered with the SEC by using the EDGAR database. Additionally, you can also use FINRA’s ScamMeter to determine whether an investment might be a scam.