Securities Fraud Lawyer Blog
On May 15, 2015 FINRA announced the filing of a complaint against ARI Financial Services, Inc. and William Brian Candler. FINRA alleged that Candler and ARI Financial Services failed to conduct reasonable due diligence regarding a private placement, failed to prevent a general solicitation of unregistered securities, and failed to document the written approval of the advertising and sales material.
The complaint concerns an investment known as Bridgeport Oaks Fund and its sale to ARI Financial’s customers via a branch office formerly owned by the principal of the Bridgeport Oaks Fund.
The complaint alleges that ARI Financial Services lacked a reasonable basis to believe that the Bridgeport Oak Fund private placement was suitable for any investor (Reasonable basis suitability) , and that because of a substandard supervisory system, ARI Financial allowed misleading advertising and sales materials to be used as art of the offering. The allegations also state that because of a deficient supervisory system, ARI Financial allowed offering materials that contained insufficient and inaccurate disclosures to be disseminated.
The Bridgeport offering was ultimately discovered to be a Ponzi scheme, which cost ARI Financials’ customers approximately $560,000, according to allegations in the FINRA complaint.
ARI Financial is registered with the SEC , FINRA, and in 22 states and territories and reports one regulatory investigation in its FINRA CRD disclosure report.
The Law Office of David Liebrader practices exclusively in the field of investment loss recovery and our securities attorneys have successfully resolved over 1000 investment loss cases over the past 20 years. Recoveries for clients top $40 million. The types of claims we have successfully handled include those involving unsuitable investments (suitability claims), excessive trading or “churning”, misrepresentations and omissions, unauthorized trading, over-concentration of illiquid or overly risky investments, pump and dump scams involving “penny stocks”, direct participation programs (private placements) involving real estate investment trusts (REITS), oil and gas exploration programs, leasing equipment deals and receivable financing, promissory notes whether sold through a broker dealer or as part of the outside business activities of a registered representative, ponzi scheme losses, failure on the part of the broker dealer to perform due diligence, state securities law (blue sky) violations and failure to supervise.
Investment losses can be recovered through a process known as FINRA arbitration. FINRA regulates broker dealers that sell investments, and provides an arbitration forum to resolve investor disputes. Investors can pursue claims against their brokerage firms in the FINRA arbitration forum. Common claims in the forum are those for suitability, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentations and omissions, negligence, violation of FINRA rules, state and federal securities laws violations, elder abuse, breach of contract and failure to supervise. On average, the recovery process takes approximately a year, from start to finish.
FINRA’s rules require that all investment recommendations made by licensed financial advisors be suitable in light of a customer’s needs, objectives and risk tolerance. In addition, all registered representatives are required to be properly supervised, with periodic inspections and reviews by qualified supervisors, whose job it is to vigorously investigate suspicions of wrongdoing (red flags).
If you have suffered investment losses please call The Law Office of David Liebrader at (702) 380-3131 for a free, confidential consultation