Dismissal Of All Claims Won For Shustak Reynolds & Partners’ Client
SAN DIEGO, CA, June 29, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ – Shustak Reynolds & Partners, P.C. announces that it won summary judgment for a large financial institution, and successfully obtained the dismissal of all claims asserted against the company, avoiding a long and potentially costly jury trial. The firm’s client, a conglomerate of four independent broker-dealer firms with more than 5,000 independent financial professionals and 700 affiliated financial institutions, was sued for millions of dollars in damages by the sellers of a California based broker-dealer arising out of a $12 million acquisition that closed in the spring of 2008, just before the unprecedented collapse of the economy. The case involved more than 600,000 documents, numerous depositions of witnesses in Sacramento, Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta, and multiple parties and counsel. Nine months after we took over the case, we obtained summary judgment for our client who was thrilled. In addition to avoiding a long and costly jury trial, our client is entitled to recover the substantial costs and disbursements incurred in defending the claims. Partner Erwin J. Shustak and Senior Associate Robert L. Hill, along with paralegal Dominic Giovanniello, were primarily responsible for the case.
Shustak Reynolds & Partners, P.C. is a specialty law firm with a national practice focused on complex securities, financial and business law. We have offices in California and New York. Please contact us toll free at 888-748-8748.
San Diego, CA – Shustak Reynolds & Partners, P.C., of San Diego, New York and San Francisco announces that it has successfully obtained an order dismissing, pre-hearings, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) arbitration claim due to the Claimant’s failure to cooperate in discovery. While dismissals of FINRA claims prior to hearings are extremely rare, the rules expressly authorize arbitrators to dismiss a claim when a party materially and intentionally fails to comply with a prior order of the panel.
The case, titled Lieberman v. Financial Northeastern Securities, Inc. (FINRA Case No. 10-00231), involved a Claimant who alleged she lost money in her investment accounts during the calamitous market downturn of 2008the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. While Claimant alleged her former broker-dealer, Financial Northeastern Securities, Inc. (“FNS”), was responsible for her alleged losses and sought more than $600,000 in total damages, her allegations were directly contradicted by hundreds of telephone recordings FNS maintained as part of its fastidious recordkeeping process. The recordings revealed that Claimant’s self-directed, sometimes risky investment decisions and substantial withdrawals of principal during a declining market caused her lossesnot any wrongdoing on the part of FNS.
Schedule a free initial consultation by calling Shustak Reynolds & Partners, P.C. toll free at 888-748-8748, or contact us online.
In early June 2013, FINRA issued its latest “investor alert” warning the public about increasingly-popular alternative mutual funds. According to FINRA, alternative mutual funds–sometimes referred to as “alt funds”–are publicly offered, SEC-registered funds that hold more non-traditional assets and employ more complex trading strategies than traditional mutual funds. Some of these funds may be unsuitable for investors who typically invest in more traditional mutual funds.
While traditional funds typically hold investments in stocks, bonds and cash, alt funds may invest in highly leveraged loans, start-up companies, global real estate and other riskier, non-traditional investments. Before considering an investment in an alt fund, FINRA cautions investors to learn about the funds investment structure, strategy risk factors, investment objectives, operating expenses, fund manager and performance history.
Financial advisors and broker-dealers often pitch alt funds as a means to generate above-average returns or as a diversification strategy. But before considering any investment in these non-traditional funds, or, for that matter, any investment, investors should carefully consider their risk tolerance and overall investment objectives.
