Securities Fraud

Are you a victim of securities fraud or unethical financial practices? Unfortunately, in today’s changing economy, securities fraud has become increasingly prevalent. Victims of fraud and related investment irregularities are often trusting, generous and loyal people who are unaware of their broker/advisors’ unethical actions until they’ve lost everything.

Chapman and Associates is dedicated to representing individual investors who are victims of securities fraud and unethical practices of their stock brokers and investment advisors.

What is Securities Fraud?

Securities fraud is when a broker/advisor makes untrue statements or fails to inform investors of important facts in order to obtain money. Often securities fraud claims involve several types of fraud and tend to include claims against not only the stock broker/advisor but their brokerage firm and the company offering the investment product. The following list is an explanation of the most common types of securities fraud.

Most Common Types of Securities Fraud

Suitability
When recommending a securities product, stock brokers are required to determine if the specific investment is suitable for the investor. Some of the factors they are to consider include the investor's age, income, assets and investment objective. If you have incurred losses as a result of a stock broker’s unsuitable investment, you may be able to recover your financial losses through a suitability claim against the stock broker.

Churning
If a stock broker or investment advisor puts his/her interest in generating commissions from a client's investment before the interest of the client, it is churning. Brokers and advisors are paid commissions on the purchase and sale of investment products. If the turnover on your investments is too high, your broker may be churning and you may have a claim against that broker/advisor and the brokerage firm.

Unauthorized Trading
Unauthorized trading is when a broker/advisor trades an investor’s non-discretionary account without the investor’s permission. Unfortunately it is a common area of fraud despite it being a blatantly obvious type of fraud. It is often covered up with fraudulent documents to deceive the investor and can go unnoticed for years.

Negligence
Negligence is when a broker/advisor fails to exercise due diligence. Negligence claims often accompany other types of securities fraud claims.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Brokers and advisors have varying degrees for fiduciary duties to their clients. For example, investment advisors are held to a higher level due to the relationship and trust involved in offering advice and managing investment portfolios. When brokers or advisors abuse the trust and confidence of their investor, they have breached their fiduciary duty to the investor.

Failure to Supervise
Stock brokers are representatives of brokerage firms who are required by FINRA and the SEC to supervise their brokers in order to protect investors. Often securities fraud cases have some degree of failure to supervise claims due to the duty that the brokerage firm has to monitor its agents. Failure to supervise is an increasing problem with “individual” brokerage firms who allow individual stock brokers and investment advisors to operate with very little supervision.

Other Types of Securities Fraud
Broker Misconduct
Sale of Unregistered Securities
Ponzi Schemes

Our Experience

Unwinding the fraudulent practices of a stock broker or investment advisor is time consuming and technically difficult. Our shareholder, Ron Chapman, has over 25 years of litigation experience, a Master's Degree in administration with an emphasis in finance, and was previously a certified internal auditor. Our team of securities fraud attorneys in Michigan and Florida have various backgrounds in finance and law and work together to create a powerful team.

Please visit our financial fraud case page to read about our cases, including the $36 million publizied case involving financial planner Keith Epstein.

How Can We Help?

Chapman and Associates accepts most securities fraud cases on a contingent or modified contingent fee basis.

Please call us at (248) 644-6326 to schedule a free 30 minute consultation with a securities fraud attorney in Michigan or (866) 238-0203 for a securities fraud attorney in Florida.