Securities Fraud Lawyer Blog
On April 7, 2015 the SEC charged Los Angeles-based Pacific West Capital Group, Inc. and its owner Andrew B Calhoun IV with fraud in the sale of “life settlement” investments.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that since 2004, Pacific West Capital Group and Calhoun, a Beverly Hills, California, life insurance agent, have raised nearly $100 million from life settlement investors. Since at least 2012, PWCG and Calhoun are alleged to have defrauded investors by using proceeds from the sale of new life settlements to continue funding life settlement investments sold years earlier.
The complaint alleges that Pacific West Capital Group and Calhoun did not disclose this to investors and made the life settlement investments appear successful when in fact, PWCG had used up the primary reserves to pay premiums on those policies.
According to the complaint, Pacific West Capital Group and Calhoun also made false and misleading statements about the risks of investing in life settlements, including the risk of investors having to make increased premium payments as insured individuals lived longer than anticipated.
The above allegations contained in the SEC’s complaint have not been proven, and the issuance of a complaint represents the SEC’s initiation of a formal proceeding in which findings as to the allegations in the complaint have not been made, and does not represent a decision as to any of the allegations contained in the complaint.
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.
If you have suffered investment losses please call The Law Office of David Liebrader at (702) 380-3131 for a free, confidential consultation