As shown by Mr. Starke’s FINRA Brokercheck report, found here, in the last two years customers have filed seven complaints against Mr. Starke, most involving allegations of the sale of illiquid, unsuitable, and high-risk investments.

Alternative Investments, which include REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), are often sold as an alternative to more traditional stocks, bonds, and stock and bond funds. These higher-risk investments are often touted for their high returns, especially in a low interest rate environment, however those high returns are accompanied with corresponding high risk.

In addition to their often high-risk nature, alternative investments may also have significant liquidity risk. Because they are typically not traded on an exchange, investors may not be able to determine the actual value of the investment, and further if the investment experiences problems, investors may not be able to sell or otherwise get out of the problem investment.

Pursuant to the Virginia Securities Act, financial advisors are required to disclose the risks associated with investments that are being recommended, and the Act provides for an award of rescission or losses, interest, and reasonable attorneys fees.

Prior to recommending the purchase of specific investments or a specific investment strategy to a customer, a stockbroker / financial advisor such as Mr. Starke is required to determine that the investments are suitable to that particular investor (or in the “best interest” of the customer after 2020). A suitability determination is based upon many different factors such as age, investment objectives, risk tolerance, employment situation, needs, income, assets, and investment experience. If an advisor’s recommendations of unsuitable investments result in the investor incurring significant losses, that investor may have a suitability, negligence, and breach of contract claim against the broker and his/her firm.

Generally, retirees and those on a fixed income should not have their life savings concentrated in high-risk illiquid investments due to the risk of loss as well as the difficulties of selling the investments.

Greco & Greco’s local Virginia-based lawyers have been representing Virginia residents for decades in claims against their financial advisors and brokerage firms. If you have suffered losses in unsuitable high-risk and illiquid investments and wish to discuss your potential claims with a local lawyer, please contact Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your potential case.

Greco & Greco is investigating investor losses in the following alternative investments:

• GWG L Bonds
• Moody National REIT
• Mobile Infrastructure
• Parking REIT
• Necessity Retail REIT
• American Finance Trust
• Silver Star Properties REIT
• First Capital Real Estate Trust
• Priority Income Fund
• American Hospitality Properties Fund
• Phoenix American Hospitality
• Commonwealth Capital
• Hospitality Investors Trust
• American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust

The investigation allegedly was initiated in response to a Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration (Form U5), reporting Carpenter’s discharge from his firm, LPL Financial. The Form U5 stated that LPL was reviewing Carpenter’s “alleged participation in unapproved real estate investments with customers.”

Mr. Carpenter’s FINRA Brokercheck report states that he was registered with LPL in Charlotte from 2020 to 2023, and prior to that he was registered with Spire Securities.

If you have lost money as a result of real estate investments associated with Mr. Carpenter or LPL, please contact W. Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your potential case. Greco & Greco has decades of experience representing harmed investors in cases of high risk real estate and other investments, as well as cases of securities fraud and investment fraud.

The Brokercheck report also states that Western International discharged Mr. Kennedy in 2021 after allegations were made about unauthorized options trading.

Mr. Kennedy was registered with Western at a branch office in Woodland Hills, California and Tarzana, California.

The securities fraud attorneys at Greco & Greco have extensive experience arbitrating claims on behalf of customers against Western International. One can also read here about a recent FINRA action against Western International regarding supervisory failures in the sale of GWG L bonds by Western brokers, and another related to non traded REIT sales.

If you have lost money as a result of unauthorized trading or unsuitable options trading by your financial advisor, please contact Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your case. We have represented wronged customers from California and across the country for decades.

These investments obviously carry higher risks than if an investor just invests in a single stock, and can include similar risks to using margin to purchase more shares of a stock than you can afford with cash, or risk shorting a stock in the hope that the price declines. Additionally, similar to inverse and leveraged ETFs that are spread over a sector of stocks, these ETFs reset daily, so if they are held for more than a day the price of the ETF can diverge significantly from the price of the underlying stock.

Financial advisors should not be recommending or purchasing these types of ETFs for retail investors unless the investor understands the risks involved and can afford to take those risks. Such a recommendation should be suitable and in the best interest of the customer. If you have lost monies in a single stock ETF that you did not understand or that was not suitable for your risk tolerance, please contact W. Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your potential case.

Mr. Craffy’s Brokercheck report from FINRA discloses that he was discharged by Monmouth for failing to “disclose Outside Business Activity.” It also states that he has one customer complaint pending with allegations of negligence, fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

The FINRA Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent states that Mr. Craffy failed to appear to testify regarding his “potential conversion of customer money, loans or gifts from customers, active trading in customer accounts, and failure to fully disclose certain outside business activities.” He was barred from associating with any FINRA member in all capacities.

The Washington Post has reported that Mr. Craffy allegedly lost large amounts of monies paid in life insurance proceeds to grieving Army families.

FINRA advisors such as Mr. Craffy are required to invest customer monies in a suitable manner that is in the best interest of the customer, and in a manner that complies with the level of risk appropriate for the customer. If you are a victim of Mr. Craffy or any other broker who has lost monies as a result of the wrongdoing of the broker, please contact Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your case.

The AWC discussed the fact that Janney’s supervisory system red flagged these concentrations, but Janney “failed to take reasonable steps to understand the potential risks and rewards.”

In addition to being censured by FINRA, Janney was fined $100,000 and ordered to pay restitution to the customers that had not yet received restitution in the total amount of $145,019.

Concentration of customer accounts in one sector such as energy, or in multiple master limited partnerships (MLPs), can result in an unsuitable risk in customer accounts, and also may violate Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI). Firms such as Janney are required to have in place reasonable systems to supervise their advisors and accounts to attempt to prevent such violations.

If you have lost monies resulting from unsuitable overconcentration in a single sector, in oil and gas, or in unsuitable MLPs, we may be able to help. Please contact our securities fraud lawyers at Greco & Greco for a free attorney consultation.

Reg BI, 17 CFR 240-15l-1, specifically describes the “best interest” obligation as follows in section (a)(1):

“A broker, dealer, or a natural person who is an associated person of a broker or dealer, when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities (including account recommendations) to a retail customer, shall act in the best interest of the retail customer at the time the recommendation is made, without placing the financial or other interest of the broker, dealer, or natural person who is an associated person of a broker or dealer making the recommendation ahead of the interest of the retail customer.”

Reg BI includes four best interest obligations – the disclosure obligation, the care obligation, the conflict-of-interest obligation, and the compliance obligation.

Although firms may address some conflicts of interest by disclosure to customers, the SEC discussed that certain conflicts cannot simply be disclosed, and must be eliminated. Specifically, the following activities by the Broker-Dealer would violate Reg BI – “sales contests, sales quotas, bonuses, and non-cash compensation that are based on the sales of specific securities or specific types of securities within a limited period of time.”

Many cases of investor harm that end up in FINRA Arbitration are a result of financial incentives to the broker which encouraged the wrongful conduct or unsuitable recommendation. This can include churning, but also can involve high risk securities / investments that pay higher fees or compensation to the broker to generate more sales of the product. Issuers of high risk but low reward investments pay high commissions (sometimes at 8% or higher) because otherwise no reasonable broker would sell the investment. This can and does then lead to losses by public customers who were not explained the risk, and trusted their financial advisor. As the SEC makes clear, a Broker-Dealer cannot encourage the sale of certain kinds of high commission products through sales contests or quotas, and must have a compliance system in place to detect and prevent such violations of Reg BI.

If you believe you may have a potential claim against your financial advisor, please contact Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation about your case.

The Complaint alleges that Western and its brokers sold high risk and potentially illiquid L bonds issued by GWG Holdings, Inc., with many of the sales to customers on fixed incomes and with moderate risk tolerances. The SEC’s press release alleged that the Defendants “failed to comply with Reg BI’s “Care Obligation” both because they did not exercise reasonable diligence, care, and skill to understand the risks, rewards, and costs associated with L Bonds, and also because they recommended L Bonds to at least seven particular customers without a reasonable basis to believe the bonds were in their customers’ best interests.”

The SEC also claimed that the activities and sales violated the compliance component of Reg BI which requires firms to establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with Reg BI.

Western’s advisors allegedly sold $13.3 million of the L bonds in 2020 and 2021.

Greco & Greco’ securities fraud lawyers regularly represent harmed individuals who were sold unsuitable investments that were not in their best interest, and has brought multiple FINRA arbitrations against Western International in the past. If you lost money in GWG L bonds sold by Western brokers or brokers from another firm, and wish to discuss your claims, please contact Scott Greco for a free attorney consultation.