Articles Posted in Recent Awards

A FINRA arbitration panel issued an award of damages to Greco & Greco clients against UBS of Puerto Rico on February 23, 2018. The arbitration involved multiple Puerto Rico customers of UBS who had been invested primarily in UBS Puerto Rico Closed-End Mutual Funds and Puerto Rico Bonds.

The award, totaling $521,075.00 in damages, was significant because most of the damages were incurred in investments that UBS claimed were conservative (the Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Bond Fund and COFINA bonds), and UBS further unsuccessfully claimed that the customers had not lost any money because of the interest/dividends they had earned over the years in the investments.

Read more at InvestmentNews

In this FINRA Arbitration held in Jackson, Mississippi, Greco & Greco represented a retiree who was cold-called by a New York broker. The broker’s investments ultimately lost a significant amount of the client’s savings in several overconcentrated stock positions. The FINRA panel awarded $80,000 in damages, $15,000 in punitive damages for “reckless disregard of Claimant’s rights,” and expert witness costs. Read the FINRA award.

In this case taken pro bonoby Greco & Greco, the FINRA arbitrator awarded the full amount of compensatory damages and interest requested based on claims of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and unsuitable recommendations. The arbitrator found that the brokerage firm “failed to recommend suitable investments based on [Claimant’s] request, age, needs, income status, and need for security.” The firm had ignored Claimant’s request for safer investments as her IRA declined with the market in 2008. Read the FINRA award.

W. Scott Greco, working with local Puerto Rico co-counsel, represented multiple customers in FINRA arbitration hearings in 2019 against UBS of Puerto Rico that resulted in monetary awards to the customers.

The first, a case involving overconcentration in risky UBS Puerto Rico closed end funds, resulted in an award of $4,813,161.00 which were the principal losses from February, 2013 forward, despite UBS’s claims that the accounts had a net out of pocket profit.

The second FINRA arbitration award in 2019 involved overconcentration in a few Puerto Rico bonds, and resulted in an arbitration award of $195,000 including attorney fees, again despite UBS claims of a net out of pocket profit.