February 2, 2011
Ignites
In what is being hailed as an historic change to the securities arbitration process, the SEC has approved a rule that allows investors to choose only public arbitrators to hear and decide their claims against brokers. Previously, in cases with three arbitrators (those involving claims over $100,000), the panels have been made up of two […]
December 3, 2010
Wall Street Journal
A unit of Citigroup Inc. (C) must pay a group of investors a total of $2.43 million for losses they incurred in a municipal arbitrage fund that lost about 80% during a period between 2007 and 2008. Five Memphis-based investors filed the claim in 2009, seeking damages related to MAT Five, which is among a […]
October 14, 2010
Investment News
Bruce Kelly
Dozens of plaintiffs suing brokerage firms this month and last have seen a veritable gusher of multimillion-dollar awards – leaving some plaintiff’s attorneys anticipating a continued stream of such arbitration rulings. The awards, all decided by Financial Industry Authority Inc. arbitration panels in September and October include: Larry “J.R. Ewing” Hagman’s $11.5 million award vs. […]
October 12, 2010
Bloomberg
Susan Antilla
When duped investors set out to make themselves whole after a fleecing by a broker, the American way is to hustle them off to a private court run by Wall Street. It’s a tradition that was set in stone when the Supreme Court in 1987 said that, if an investor signed an agreement to arbitrate, […]
October 10, 2010
New York Times
Gretchen Morgenson
When he played the oil tycoon J. R. Ewing Jr., in “Dallas,” the long-running, ’80s-era nighttime soap opera, Larry Hagman didn’t get mad at his adversaries. He got even. Last week, Mr. Hagman, 79, got even once again. This time it was against his broker. A securities arbitration panel awarded Mr. Hagman and his wife […]