Cody represents investors who have lost money or been harmed by fraud and other financial misconduct.
This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact investors in Oregon and across the country.
The S.E.C. recently initiated legal action to restrain Jeffrey Higgins—who was previously registered as an investment adviser representative with Western International Securities, Inc. in Baker City, Oregon—from continuing to commit alleged violations of securities laws. According to the S.E.C., Higgins
The S.E.C. recently censured and fined two registered investment adviser firms, finding that they breached their non-waivable fiduciary duties to their clients by attempting to prospectively limit their potential liability to their clients through the use of so-called ‘hedge clauses’
The SEC adopted rules on Wednesday last week that will require companies to have a policy to claw back erroneously awarded incentive compensation paid to current or former executives. The policy must also be filed with a company’s annual report.
These back-office services can include anything from compliance to risk analysis to identifying investment options. The adviser benefits by outsourcing services and functions that they would otherwise have to take care of in house.
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services published its Summer 2022 issue of Common Ground this week. It includes an article about cryptocurrencies and NFTs and another about a lawsuit against Safeguard Metals, LLC and others that Oregon joined.
We wrote about Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) in a Stoll Berne Investor Blog post more than a year ago. At that time, SPACs were attracting attention as a way for businesses to raise funds in public markets without having
The United States Supreme Court recently held that waiver of the right to arbitrate is not conditioned on a showing of prejudice. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. (May 23, 2022) has important implications for investors
Dutch Bros, the coffee shop company headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon issued its Form 10-Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2022. The Form 10-Q is available through the SEC’s EDGAR database.
The SEC recently published an Investor Bulletin with important information about interest charges on margin accounts. Trading on margin is not free. Like other borrowed money, broker-dealers that lend money to investors to trade on margin charge interest. These interest
The SEC Division of Examinations announced its 2022 examination priorities in late March. The priorities include a “focus on private funds, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, retail investor protections, information security and operational resiliency, emerging technologies, and crypto-assets.”
President Biden signed an Executive Order on March 9, 2022, directing federal agencies to develop a strategy for regulations and policies on digital assets, which include cryptocurrencies.
Forced arbitration is common in investor cases. If an investor has a dispute with a member of FINRA, such as a broker or brokerage firm, and the dispute involves the investment business of the broker or brokerage firm, the investor
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote about crypto currency markets and investing in his column, How Crypto Became the New Subprime. Whether you are a crypto skeptic or advocate, the column draws an interesting comparison between…
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s broker-dealer subsidiary, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS), agreed to pay a $125 million penalty and acknowledged that it failed to preserve written communications as required by federal securities laws. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) press release
A recent Wall Street Journal article, A Couple Stored IRA Gold at Home. They Owe the IRS More than $300,000, is a reminder about what can be complex rules for using an IRA to invest in esoteric assets, such as
The United States House Financial Services Committee recently passed the Investor Choice Act, H.R. 2620. The Investor Choice Act, introduced by Representative Bill Foster, would prohibit broker-dealers, investment advisers, and others from including mandatory arbitration clauses in their customer agreements.
Stoll Berne is investigating the use of Turnkey Asset Management Programs, often called TAMPs. We are interested in speaking with investors whose adviser or broker-dealer is using a TAMP as part of managing the investor’s account.
In an article about insider stock sales at publicly traded companies, the Wall Street Journal reported that the father of the CEO of Carvana, an online car dealer, sold $3.6 billion in company stock since October.
