February 19, 2003
PR Newswire
An NASD arbitration panel ordered Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER-news) to pay two former customers more than $2.1 million stemming from the company’s sale to them of unsuitable securities, excessive trading of their accounts and failure to supervise. Brothers Alex and Michel Horvat alleged that Win Troung, a broker in the Merrill Lynch Beverly Hills office, […]
February 18, 2003
NBC4.TV
LOS ANGELES — Marilyn and Dean Aspinal of Orange County are having a financial crisis after losing nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the stock market. They claim their stockbroker recommended investments inappropriate for people about to retire. “He said, ‘I’m going to put you in some technology stocks. We’re going to make […]
February 11, 2003
Los Angeles Times
E. Scott Reckard
When Oscar Bugarini was downsized into early retirement from Boeing Co.’s Long Beach aircraft plant in 1999, he turned his $240,000 in retirement savings over to brokerage Salomon Smith Barney, asking in writing for a conservative portfolio balanced among “value” stocks, bonds and cash. Instead, Bugarini says, he wound up with technology stocks and Salomon-managed […]
January 31, 2003
Investment News
A common Wall Street practice to encourage clients to take out margin loans has come under fire from plaintiff’s lawyers who claim brokers put their own financial interest ahead of their clients’. To boost margin-loan business, the lawyers claim, some brokerage houses changed the wording on new client account forms while others boosted their broker […]
January 1, 2003
OnWallstreet.com
Dan Jamieson
Weary from investigations and bad press, the securities industry has gotten tougher with clients who threaten legal actions. Plaintiffs’ attorneys say firms have, for one thing, begun counterclaiming disgruntled investors. This is usually done by requesting that the claimant pay the firm’s attorneys’ fees. One such counterclaim by Merrill Lynch has had a “real chilling […]