Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center

Ameriprise Broker Eric Stuckey’s Customer Complaints Include Unsuitable Recommendations, Misrepresentation

Andrew Stoltmann — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 14:42:35 +0000

Publicly available records with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) indicate that Suwanee, Georgia-based Ameriprise broker Eric Stuckey has customer complaints against him. They include: recommending unsuitable products, misrepresenting material facts, failing to disclose certain risks in recommended investments, placing sub-account assets in unsuitable high-risk funds, concentrating a portfolio in three energy sector investments, employing “inappropriate market timing strategies,” recommending unsuitable investments, and others. These are all against securities laws and internal firm rules and if you lost money because of Eric Stuckey, you may be able to recover your losses on a contingency fee basis by bringing an arbitration claim against Ameriprise. The firm has a duty to reasonably supervise every broker it employs, so they do not violate securities laws. If the firm does not, it may be liable for losses in the FINRA arbitration forum on a contingency fee basis.

Eric Stuckey was previously registered with Royal Alliance Associates in Suwanne, Georgia from February 1996 until March 2009 and Invest Financial Corp in Suwanee from February 2009 until January 2018. He is currently registered with Ameriprise in Suwanee, and has been since January 2018. He has five customer complaints against him, one of which is currently pending, and two judgment/liens, according to his BrokerCheck report with FINRA online.

The post Ameriprise Broker Eric Stuckey’s Customer Complaints Include Unsuitable Recommendations, Misrepresentation appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Former Ameriprise Broker James Knee Barred by FINRA

Andrew Stoltmann — Fri, 11 May 2018 19:54:39 +0000

Stoltmann Law Offices is investigating former Ameriprise and Voya broker James Knee. Knee was being investigated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for misappropriating customer funds while registered with the firms. This is against securities laws and internal firm rules. A brokerage firm such as Ameriprise or Voya must reasonably supervise its brokers in order to ensure that they do not violate securities laws. If the firm fails to do so, it may be liable for losses on a contingency fee basis. Mr. Knee was terminated from Ameriprise because of his “failure to cooperate in an internal investigation relating to his potential receipt of a cash gift from a customer.”

James Knee was formerly associated with the following firms:

Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida (1998-2005)

Cantella & Co. in Concord, New Hampshire (2005-2006)

Cambridge Investment Research in Concord, New Hampshire (2006-2009)

Investors Capital Corp in Concord, New Hampshire (2009-2012)

Ameriprise Finanancial Services in Concord, New Hampshire (2012-2015)

Voya Financial Advisors in Concord, New Hampshire (2015-2016)

He has five customer disputes against him, alleging unsuitable investments, misrepresentation, unsuitable transactions in variable annuities, and other things. There is an investigation against him and an employment separation after allegations, according to his online, FINRA BrokerCheck report. He is not currently registered as a broker. Please call our Chicago-based securities law firm today if you suffered losses with James Knee and would like a free consultation about how to recover your losses on a contingency fee basis in the FINRA arbitration forum.

The post Former Ameriprise Broker James Knee Barred by FINRA appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Update: Former Ameriprise Broker Li Lin Hsu Charged With Stealing from Clients

Andrew Stoltmann — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:31:02 +0000

Li Lin Hsu, a former Ameriprise broker, was arrested last week on charges of stealing from 11 of her former clients while she was registered with the firm and after she was fired in 2015. She allegedly took money from the clients after finding them through ads in Chinese language newspapers. She used the money to pay personal loans and to buy real estate. Hsu faces three counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice. She pleaded not guilty and faces 20 years on each fraud count, 10 years on money laundering and five years for obstruction of justice. Hsu was ordered in September to pay Ameriprise $675,000 to cover costs the firm had to pay to one of her former clients.

Li Lin Hsu was previously registered with Ameriprise in Minneapolis, Minnesota from November 2005 until December 2005 and Ameriprise in Los Angeles, California from February 2006 until April 2015. She has three customer disputes against her, alleging losses, and illegally borrowing money from clients, among other things. She has three regulatory matters against her, according to her online, FINRA BrokerCheck report. She has been permanently barred from the industry. Please call us today for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with one of our attorneys. They are standing by to take your call. You may be able to sue Ameriprise in the arbitration forum if you suffered losses with Li Lin Hsu.

The post Update: Former Ameriprise Broker Li Lin Hsu Charged With Stealing from Clients appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Options For Ameriprise Whistleblowers

Andrew Stoltmann — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 18:37:14 +0000

Please call our law firm today for a no-cost review if you wish to file a whistleblower claim against Ameriprise, and were a former or are a current employee of the bank. The type of activity the SEC is most interested in, includes brokers who materially mislead investors so that they make buying and selling decisions concerning stocks that they might not have made, had they been fully and accurately informed. It also includes specific sales abuses engaged in by Ameriprise or brokers with the firm. If an Ameriprise employee submits a tip to the SEC that is original, voluntary, and results in sanctions worth more than $1,000,000, the whistleblower could be rewarded between 10 and 30 percent of the fines collected. Millions of dollars have been paid to whistleblowers for their help in SEC investigations.

In 2016, a former branch manager, Michael Loscalso, sued Ameriprise, saying he was fired for raising serious allegations about its’ supervision of brokers. In his suit, Loscalso allged that his repeated complaints to management about “fraud, forgery and other practices that violated SEC rules and regulations led to the retaliatory termination of his employment” by Ameriprise. It also alleged that Mr. Loscalso “engaged in the protected activity of reporting violation of SEC rules and regulations to management on numerous occasions throughout his employment, and, immediately prior to his termination by Ameriprise. He also reported violations to his supervisors, including incidents related to forgery, fraud, unlicensed sales, unlicensed signing of documents, overcharging for financial planning services, under delivery of financial planning advice, and breaches of client privacy and data security.”

We have sued Ameriprise dozens of times in FINRA arbitration claims. If you wish to report unethical conduct at Ameriprise, and seek to make a whistleblower claim, please call our law firm today.

The post Options For Ameriprise Whistleblowers appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

SEC Slams Ameriprise For Overcharging Retirement Account Customers

Andrew Stoltmann — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 17:36:12 +0000

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently settled charges with Ameriprise. The SEC was charging the firm for recommending and selling higher-fee mutual fund shares to retail retirement account customers and for failing to provide sales charge waivers. The bank allegedly disadvantaged certain retirement account customers by failing to ascertain their eligibility for less expensive mutual fund share classes. The bank sold these customers more expensive mutual fund share classes when less expensive share classes were available. It also failed to disclose it would receive greater compensation from the purchases, and that the purchases would negatively impact the overall return on the customers’ investments. 1,791 customer accounts paid a total of $1,778,592.31 in unnecessary up-front sales charges, contingent deferred sales charges, and higher ongoing fees and expenses as a result of this. If you suffered losses with Ameriprise, please call us today to find out how you may be able to recover those investment losses on a contingency fee basis in the arbitration forum.

The post SEC Slams Ameriprise For Overcharging Retirement Account Customers appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Ameriprise In Trouble Again With FINRA for F-Squared Sales

Andrew Stoltmann — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:28:42 +0000

According to a recent InvestmentNews article, Ameriprise Financial was ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay $1.75 million in penalties and to disgorge $6.3 million because of F-Squared sales. The SEC also censured Horter Investment Management in Cincinnati, Ohio, for its sales of F-Squared Alpha Sector sales and ordered it to pay $250,000 in penalties and disgorge $482,595. Institutional Investor Advisors in Venice, Florida, was also ordered to pay a civil penalty of $200,000. F-Squared sales were sector rotation strategies based on an algorithm that yielded a “signal” indicating whether to buy or sell nine industry exchange-traded funds. F-Squared allegedly miscalculated the historical performance of AlphaSector by incorrectly implementing signals in advance of when such signals actually could have occurred. It also used hypothetical and back-tested historical performance that was inflated substantially over what performance would have been if F-Squared had applied the signals correctly. In December 2014, F-Squared paid $35 million to the SEC and admitted wrongdoing regarding falsifying performance numbers in its advertising and marketing materials. In July 2015, it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The SEC claimed that Ameriprise, Horter and IIA based their sales presentations on F-Squared false performance claims and did not do their own due diligence. The firms “failed to adopt and implement their own adequate policies and procedures to check out the claims, which should have prevented the firms from promoting the inaccuracies to clients,” according to the SEC. Ameriprise did not remove references in its advertising materials to specific performance information of F-Squared for periods prior to September 2008, and these are all against securities laws.

The post Ameriprise In Trouble Again With FINRA for F-Squared Sales appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Leslie Markus Jr. Disciplined By FINRA: What Investors Can Do

Andrew Stoltmann — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:53:07 +0000

According to a Disciplinary Proceeding with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Leslie Markus Jr., a former registered broker with Ameriprise, allegedly made 11 unauthorized mutual fund purchases in a customer’s account on a single day. He also allegedly entered a false note in his firm’s “client notes” system to make it appear that he had spoken with the customer prior to the purchases, when, in fact, he had not, and he also entered a note that he had a “mandate” to make the purchases, when he did not. He also alleged that he had “time and price discretion” in the customer’s account, when he did not. These are all against securities laws.

According to FINRA records, Mr. Markus was previously registered with Guardian Investor Services Corp in New York, New York from February 1996 until April 1997, Tower Square Securities in El Segundo, California from April 1997 until August 1999, American Capital Corp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania from July 1999 until November 2011, Multi-Financial Securities Corp in North East, Maryland from November 2001 until September 2006, Cadaret, Grant & Co. in Syracuse, New York from September 2006 until May 2012 and Ameriprise Financial Services in Center Valley, Pennsylvania from May 2012 until September 2015. He is currently registered with Lincoln Investment in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has been since September 2015. He has one customer dispute against him alleging misrepresentation in the solicitation of a variable annuity.

The post Leslie Markus Jr. Disciplined By FINRA: What Investors Can Do appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Update: Broker Li-Lin Hsu Forced to Pay Ameriprise $675,000

Andrew Stoltmann — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 14:38:38 +0000

Li-Lin Hsu, a former Ameriprise broker, was recently forced to pay the firm $675,000 over a customer complaint that the firm settled, according to a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel. Ameriprise had previously filed a lawsuit alleging that Ms. Hsu used company stationery to pass herself off as an Ameriprise advisor, when she was not. She was fired from the firm in 2015. A client with the Glendale, California-based Ameriprise location, at which Hsu worked as a broker, sued the firm for not informing her that Hsu had been suspended “due to repeated violations of company policy and applicable law.” Hsu was accused of misappropriating the client’s investment funds. She had also been accused of “violating company policy related to maintaining a beneficiary relationship with a client, complaint handling, commingling of funds, and conducting business with a foreign client,” according to her public report with FINRA.

Ameriprise subsequently went after Hsu, filing a third-party arbitration claim against her. The customer received $675,000 in the settlement, after seeking $805,370 in damages. She withdrew her claim against the firm in April 2017. Ameriprise determined that Hsu was passing herself off as an employee of the firm in Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, and also posted images of the firm’s computer software and financial forms on her Facebook page, according to their lawsuit against her. The firm was granted a preliminary injunction in June after seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction ordering Hsu to cease using its proprietary forms.

Hsu worked in the Glendale, California location from January 2006 until March 2015. She is no longer registered with RIA firm Transglobal Advisory in Pasadena, California, which is where she went after Ameriprise. She has another ongoing arbitration against her, involving claims that she advised clients to purchase a failing and unprofitable business for her personal gain, and that she illegally borrowed money from them. They are seeking $1 million in damages.

The post Update: Broker Li-Lin Hsu Forced to Pay Ameriprise $675,000 appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Jack McBride; Farmington Hills, Michigan

Andrew Stoltmann — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 14:25:57 +0000

According to a recent Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), former Ameriprise broker Jack McBride violated securities laws. He allegedly committed several violations pertaining to customer accounts as follows: he settled a customer complaint without notifying his firm, sent two emails to two customers containing accounts values that he had inflated, and, in connection with non-traditional Exchange Traded Products (ETFs) which were prohibited by the firm, mismarked order tickets as unsolicited when the transactions were in fact solicited. These are all against securities laws. For this he was fined $12,500 and suspended from the industry for 40 calendar days. According to FINRA records, Mr. McBride was previously registered with Ameriprise in West Bloomfield, Michigan from September 1994 until October 2009 and Ameriprise in Farmington Hills, Michigan from October 2009 until August 2014. He is currently registered with Wunderlich Securities in Birmingham, Michigan and has been since August 2014. He has five customer disputes against him.

The post Jack McBride; Farmington Hills, Michigan appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.

Cheryle Brady; Hingham, Massachusetts

Andrew Stoltmann — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 14:24:15 +0000

According to a recent Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Cheryle Anne Brady violated securities laws. Allegedly, Brady had her assistant place ten trades in nine of her customer’s accounts. These trades were placed without obtaining the customer’s approval. Brady then falsely stated that she had contacted the customers before the trades were placed when she was investigated by her firm, Ameriprise. This is against securities laws and internal firm rules. For this, she was suspended for six months and fined $7,500. According to public records with FINRA, Brady was previously registered with Pioneer Funds, LPL, A.G. Edwards & Sons, UBS, RBC and Ameriprise in Hingham, Massachusetts from January 2012 until October 2016. She has three customer disputes against her, and is currently not registered within the industry.

The post Cheryle Brady; Hingham, Massachusetts appeared first on Ameriprise Litigation and Arbitration Center.