Arbitration Law Blog

The
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issues a report on
disciplinary and other actions involving registered brokers, investment
advisers and brokerage firms every month.

Follow this link to the FINRA website for the entire report for the month of May 2012 as well as to access  earlier time periods.

Here are the... Read More

RBC
Capital Markets, the brokerage unit of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
agreed to pay investors $2.9 million to cover losses on leveraged and
inverse leveraged exchange traded funds to settle an action brought by
Massachusetts securities regulators who found that highly volatile,
nontraditional funds did not fit with some clients' investment
objectives. In addition, the firm was fined $250,000.

“This settlement details an... Read More

Imperial
Holdings, Inc.,  (IFT) a financial services company headquartered in
Boca Raton, FL, announced this week that they will pay $8 million to
resolve federal criminal fraud allegations that it failed to prevent
employees from making false statements on applications for life
insurance for senior citizens.

Imperial's offices were raided by the FBI in September 2011 and U.S.
Justice Department prosecutors  alleged that certain... Read More

What is a non-traded REIT?

A
REIT is a real estate investment trust, with certain tax advantages,
that purchases and sometimes operates real estate like office buildings
and shopping centers. Non-traded REITs are not market traded,
meaning that other than by private sale or sale on a secondary market, a
person cannot liquidate the investment until the REIT has a "liquidity
event". A liquidity event may result from... Read More

KBS Real Estate
Investment Trust Inc.( KBS REIT I) just  informed investors  it is
ceasing the payment of distributions to investors. This no doubt is bad
news for those who purchased KBS in anticipation of receiving monthly
distributions to supplement retirement income.

Adding further
insult to this financial injury, the company lowered the value of the
REIT again. It has declined to $5.16 per share, from
$7.32, a drop of... Read More

Non-traded REITs were sold to many with the
promise of steady distributions of income and the understanding that
the investment could be sold in the near future. Instead, many REITs
have been funding distributions with capital or, worse yet, debt. Now
many have ceased distributions completely. Here are six REITs whose
value has dropped dramatically, as reported by the Investment News.

Read More

According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is looking into
VelocityShares 2x long VIX Short Term Exchange traded note ( TVIX ),
managed by Credit Suisse Group AG.

TVIX
had about $700 million in assets before its recent decline in which it
lost 60% of its value during the last week of March.

Share
price for TVIX over the past year has ranged from a high of $109 to a
low... Read More