Theodore and David Rothman, Pennsylvania Banned Brokers

Theodore Rothman Banned by SEC

A financial advisor for more than 40 years based in Southampton, Pennsylvania, Rothman was employed most recently at Rothman Securities, Inc. and First Allied Securities, Inc. Rothman also sold insurance through Aviso Financial. According to Rothman’s BrokerCheck report, Theodore Rothman was the subject of multiple customer disputes, including over unsuitable investments and lack of supervision, before being disbarred and fined by the SEC in 2014/15.

David Rothman Banned by FINRA

The reason for Theodore Rothman’s ban from certain activities within the securities industry involves his failure to supervise his son, David Rothman’s investment activities an employee of Rothman Securities, Inc in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Southampton, Pennsylvania. According to his BrokerCheck report, David Rothman has also been permanently banned from acting as a broker or financial advisor. Having worked in the securities industry for almost 30 years, David Rothman accumulated numerous customer complaints and was convicted and imprisoned for money laundering in 2013 by the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Securities Litigation Law Firm

Our law firm is currently investigating Theodore and David Rothman along with their brokerage firms, Rothman Securities and First Allied Securities. If you or someone you know has invested with the Rothmans, please contact us immediately at 1-855-462-3330 or by using our online contact form.

Green, Schafle & Gibbs Investigates McGinn Smith Ponzi Scheme

Green, Schafle & Gibbs' Securities Litigation Team has opened an investigation into an alleged ponzi scheme operated by banned broker-dealer McGinn Smith, based in Albany, New York.

According to the SEC, at least 10 brokers at McGinn Smith were involved in a ponzi scheme to recommend unregistered investment products to their customers. The brokers recommended these products in spite of red flags which should have led them to look more closely at the products. 

The SEC’s named the former McGinn Smith brokers in an administrative proceeding:

• Donald J. Anthony, Jr. of Loudonville, N.Y. 
• Frank H. Chiappone of Clifton Park, NY. 
• Richard D. Feldmann of Delmar, N.Y.
• William P. Gamello of Rexford, N.Y. 
• Andrew G. Guzzetti of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
• William F. Lex of Phoenixville, Pa.
• Thomas E. Livingston of Slingerlands, N.Y. 
• Brian T. Mayer of Princeton, N.J. 
• Philip S. Rabinovich of Roslyn, N.Y. 

The SEC stated that approximately 750 investors have been affected by the alleged fraud at McGinn Smith, which led to an estimated $80 million in investor losses.

Pennsylvania & New Jersey Ponzi Scheme Law Firm

If you or someone you know has been the victim of a ponzi scheme or investment fraud, please contact our securities attorneys immediately at 1-866-462-3330 or via our online contact form.

Small Business Owner Losses Home Due to Bad Real Estate Deals

The Green Firm has recently filed a Statement of Claim through the FINRA Arbitration Process on behalf of a client who lost approximately $1,000,000 due to the alleged mismanagement of his account by his broker. Recommending that our client invested in complex real estate deals as well as REITs, this broker's alleged misconduct lead our client to lose not only his investments but his own home in the bargain.

Client Lost More Than $500K On Unsuitable, High Risk Securities

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim through the FINRA Arbitration Process on behalf of clients who lost more than $500K due to the alleged mismanagement of their accounts by their broker and LPL Financial. Our conservative clients' portfolio was allegedly overconcentrated in high-risk mutual funds; their risk was magnified by the addition of other high-risk and/or illiquid investments including REITs and an exotic private placement deal.

Lack of Diversification in Client's Account Leads to $150K in Losses

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim through FINRA's arbitration process to recover losses in excess of $175,000 incurred as a result of the alleged mismanagement of our client's investment account by Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. According to our claim, Citigroup and its broker allegedly used their discretion over our client's account to purchase around $50,000 worth of preferred stock in three companies, Fifth Third, a mortgage company; Citigroup, a financial services company; and AIG, a financial services company. In addition, a substantial portion of our client's portfolio represented financial services companies.  Taken together, these assets constituted around 60% of her total investment account; the remaining 40% is composed of stock in various companies. 

Broker Fails to Warn Client About Lack of Diversification

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim for compensatory damages against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the supervising brokerage firm of a broker who allegedly ignored our client’s overexposure to instability in the equities market by allowing her to keep all of her life-savings in Wachovia bank stock that crashed in 2008. Not only did the broker allegedly fail to warn our client about her lack of diversification, but when the stock crashed, he allegedly ignored his own company’s continual ratings downgrades of the stock. Our client was forced to alert the broker to the tremendous losses in her account, rather than vice versa!

Retired Widower Goes Bust Thanks to Bad Real Estate Deal

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim through FINRA’s arbitration process to recover in excess of $25,000 on behalf of our client against Lawson Financial Corp., the supervising brokerage firm of a broker who may have been seeking higher commissions when he allegedly negligently steered a retired elderly widower into a private commercial real estate deal, Prestige Equity Partners No. 4 LLC, that went bust. Not only did the deal expose our client to undue risk, but it was completely unsuitable for him, since he was not an “accredited investor” who could withstand major losses and liquidity problems in his investment account, which was composed of his life-savings.

Disabled client fleeced by broker

The Green Firm has filed a Statement of Claim through FINRA's arbitration process against brokerage Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC on behalf of a permanently disabled client whose life-savings were severely diminished by the allegedly unsuitable and reckless investment strategy of a Wells Fargo broker. While explicitly describing herself as a conservative growth investor as a result of her inability to work, her disability, and her need for income-generating investments, in our claim we allege the broker persuaded our client to sell her conservative financial products in favor of more aggressive and risky products that resulted in damages equivalent to $30,000.  

Broker betrays trust and decimates portfolio

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim for compensatory damages in excess of $50,000 on behalf of our client against LPL Financial and Summit Brokerage Services, the supervising brokerages of a broker who allegedly betrayed our client's personal trust and lost him and his family a lot of money. Contrary to our client's express investment objectives and risk tolerance, the broker allegedly recommended and implemented an investment strategy that was overly aggressive, excessive in risk, and wholly unsuitable. This strategy included the allegedly negligent mishandling of non-traditional ETFs, which are a complex financial product designed to be used for one day only but which in this case were held for months at a time, resulting in massive losses. For the sake of other investors out there who have suffered as a result of misuse of the same or similar products, here they are by name: Direxion Shares ETF Trust Daily Energy Bear 3X Shares (symbol ERY); Direxion Shares ETF Trust Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (symbol FAZ); Direxion Shares ETF Trust Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (symbol BGZ).

Rogue broker's erratic investments cost client dearly

The Green Firm recently filed a Statement of Claim to begin the FINRA arbitration process against a broker who had a long history of FINRA registered complaints against him, and who allegedly decimated our client's life-savings through a series of misguided investments in low-price, high-risk products that were completely unsuitable for our client. In our claim, we allege that not only did the broker in question invest unsuitably, but that at one point our client's investment portfolio, which was supposed to reflect a conservative risk tolerance, was 93% distributed in favor of high-risk equities. Finally, the sponsoring brokerage firm allegedly utterly failed in its legal and fiduciary duty to monitor its broker's erratic and unsuitable investments on behalf of our client, when it knew the broker had a checkered history.

Small business owners victimized by rogue broker

The Green Firm has taken legal action in the form of a Statement of Claim against FSC Securities Corporation on behalf of our clients to recover losses in excess of $1,500,000. Through a lethal combination of risky, illiquid investments in a failing REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and the reckless and insupportable purchase of multiple life insurance policies, our small business-owner clients have lost a tremendous amount of their net worth and stand to lose even more over the next few years.  The broker allegedly responsible for these losses as well as the disastrous logic behind them failed to disclose the nature of the products and degree of risk he was exposing our clients to, as well the high fees he received upon selling them the REIT and life insurance policies.

Broker abuses non-traditional ETFs

The Green Firm recently filed a statement of claim against LPL Financial, LLC whose employee financial advise abused what are called non-traditional ETFs was breathtaking. We allege that the broker in question lost our client, a very frugal and risk-averse small businessman, approximately 70% of his total account value as a result of investment misconduct by his broker in combination with a lack of supervisory oversight on the part of LPL Financial, LLC. 

Non-traditional ETFs are highly complex financial products which are typically unsuitable for retail investors and designed to be deployed in volatile markets for one trading day at a time. In this case, the broker held the non-traditional ETFs in the claimant's account for a period of several months.

Shocking as this abuse may sound, unfortunately it's all too common. Broker misconduct and the misapplication of sophisticated financial products are at the center of so many of the cases we see at The Green Firm.  If you have been the victim of similar conduct by LPL Financial, LLC or any other broker or brokerage firm, please contact us immediately for a free consultation to review your legal rights.