Customers who purchased private placements and/or other alternative investments from VSR Financial may be able to recover damages for losses on these investments if the broker misrepresented the investments when he was selling them or if the investments are not suitable for your portfolio.
Brokers are required to “know the customer” and to make investment recommendations that are suitable, taking into account the customer’s age, health, investment experience, investment objectives and risk tolerance.
VSR Financial was recently sanctioned and assessed a fine of $550,000 in connection with the sale of alternative investments, non-conventional investments and private placements. VSR alt inv. FINRA sanction may 2013
The FINRA investigation criticized VSR for allowing customers to invest too large a percentage of their net worth in these alternative investments and for allowing brokers to provide inaccurate reports to customers and for falsification of documents used to obtain approval of the sales of these products. Because of the inaccurate pricing used by brokers and the firm’s lack of supervision, customers received statements with erroneous pricing information.
Some of the alternative investments sold by VSR Financial include:
- Penneco Oil Company
- Odyssey Diversified Notes IX
- Arciterra Note Fund III
- Mewbourne Energy Partners
- Waveland Resource Partners
- Waveland Energy 2011-A Drilling
- UDF III
- UDF Land Opportunity
- Net REIT
- Odyssey Diversified VI
- Arciterra Note Fund III
- Odyssey Diversified Notes IX
- MPF Income Fund 22 LLC
- Behringer Harvard Opp REIT
- Cole Credit Property Trust II
- DBSI 2008 Notes Corporation
In October 2010, VSR Financial broker Michael D. Shaw entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with FINRA and consented to a permanent bar from the industry for misrepresentations and unsuitable recommendations made in connection with the sale of private placement investments . ( AWC 2010022963601).
Shaw was found to have misrepresented the risks associated with the sale of private placements and to have made unsuitable recommendations to customers. In addition Shaw altered internal VSR compliance documents in order to falsely qualify the customers for purchase of the subject investments. Shaw was barred from the industry.
If you purchased alternative investments, private placements and/or other non-conventional investments from VSR Financial and believe that the nature of the risk associated with the investments was misrepresented or if you feel the investments are not suitable, you may be able to recover damages through FINRA arbitration.
Rex Securities Law , with offices in Boca Raton, FL, and Austin, TX, provides representation to investors nationwide who are seeking recovery of investment losses due to the negligence or fraud of stockbrokers and broker dealers. If you have questions about how your account has been handled, call to speak with an experienced securities attorney.
Most cases handled on a contingent fee basis meaning that you do not pay legal fees unless we are successful.
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