Upper Saddle River Investors

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey investors who have questions or concerns regarding their investment and/or retirement accounts can contact the securities litigation and regulatory attorneys at Lubiner, Schmidt & Palumbo for assistance. The securities group at the firm has handled securities cases in courts in New York and New Jersey for more than three decades. The firm has also appeared in hundreds of securities arbitrations administered by the securities industry regulatory authority, FINRA. The securities lawyers at Lubiner, Schmidt & Palumbo, which include a former broker, a former Wall Street in house attorney and a former prosecutor, have developed an in depth understanding of how brokerage firms operate and the rules and regulations that govern them. Securities fraud is a broad term that can describe many possible activities of financial advisors that could result in harm to Upper Saddle River investors. Unauthorized trading, excessive trading/churning, negligence and misrepresentations/omissions by unscrupulous or simply incompetent advisors can result in Upper Saddle River investors being harmed and sustaining substantial investment losses.

Just two years ago the Securities Exchange Commission brought a case against Saddle River Advisors LLC (“SRA”) and its principal, John Bivona, for conducting a Ponzi scheme. The SEC alleged in a lawsuit filed in federal court in 2016 that Bivona and SRA induced victims to invest $53 million with SRA, purportedly to acquire early to late stage pre-IPO tech companies. In reality, Bivona and others used the invested funds to pay off earlier investors in an unrelated scam and for personal expenditures. In December 2017 Bivona and SRA settled the SEC suit, agreeing to repay scammed investors $50 million.

Another area of expertise of the Lubiner, Schmidt & Palumbo law firm concerns margin trading. A customer may be permitted to borrow funds from her brokerage firm by using the stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., in the client’s account as collateral. This enables the customer to increase her “buying power” through margin; the client can use the borrowing power to acquire more securities. The customer can then increase the possibility of higher profits in her account. But if the market moves against the client’s positions the opposite can happen; the client can incur greater losses than she would have but for the use of margin. Only experienced Upper Saddle River investors should consider utilizing margin trading.

Among the most suspect investment products that can be sold to Upper Saddle River investors are penny stocks. The SEC describes penny stocks as those having a price below $5 per share. Penny stocks are also often called “microcap” or “low priced” stocks. Penny stocks trade on the OTC Bulletin Board or pink sheets. They do not trade on the national exchanges; therefore, penny stock issuers do not publish the financial disclosures made by companies listed the major exchanges. Detailed information on a particular penny stock issuer such as its financial background and performance, the company’s officers, etc., can be hard to locate.

Penny stocks are very volatile. That volatility makes low priced stocks attractive to speculative investors but not suitable for most investors.

Penny stocks are also frequently illiquid and shareholders may have difficulty selling their shares because of the lack of demand for the particular penny stock. This is another reason Upper Saddle River investors may want to avoid these low priced securities.

Unfortunately, an all to common problem faced by investors involves elder abuse. Industry and government agencies have instituted rules to curb the abuse of senior citizen investors. However, instances of the financial abuse of senior investors are not unusual. Senior citizen investors may not appreciate the risks of some investments presented to them by their financial advisors. They may experience difficulty in reading their monthly account statements. If you are an elderly Upper Saddle River investor, or a family member of one, and are concerned about the handling of your account, the experienced securities lawyers at Lubiner, Schmidt & Palumbo are available for a consultation.

Upper Saddle River investors who have experienced losses, or are concerned about the handling of their retirement or brokerage accounts, can contact the experienced securities litigation and regulatory law firm of Lubiner, Schmidt & Palumbo for a consultation.