Wall Street Journal
Bambi Holzer spent decades as a financial broker to Hollywood’s rich and famous, dispensing advice from her offices in Beverly Hills, California. She wrote best-selling financial self-help books and frequently appeared on television. But she also had another claim to fame: reaching the top 10 among 550,000 brokers with the highest number of customer complaints, […]
Wall Street Journal
When Michael Farah sided with his clients after they suffered losses in mortgage-backed securities, his firm–Wedbush Securities—turned on him for being disloyal. The firm spent a decade trying to pin responsibility on him but lost when an arbitration panel awarded Mr. Farah $4.3 million in compensation, punitive damages and years of legal fees. Retired family […]
Reuters
Wall Street’s industry-funded watchdog issued new guidance late Monday that gives arbitrators more information about their responsibilities in a process that allows securities brokers to request the removal of customer complaints from their public records. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued the guidance just days before a group of lawyers for investors plan to […]
Reuters
A $4.3 million arbitration award to a broker who was encouraged by his former firm to sell securities that later failed could spawn similar complaints from other brokers. The unusual ruling, issued late Wednesday by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel, requires Los Angeles brokerage Wedbush Securities Inc to pay the broker after nearly […]
Wall Street Journal
Wedbush Securities Inc. must pay a former broker $4.3 million in damages and legal fees for business he said he lost because of collateralized mortgage obligations he sold that went bad on clients. While many mortgage-backed securities plummeted in value after the 2008 financial crisis, those involved in this case soured years earlier, in 2003. […]