Representative cases

A group of Prudential Securities investors in Dallas lost boatloads of money investing in limited partnerships at the behest of Prudential stockbroker Fred Storaska. The cases landed on the front page of the Wall Street Journal business section in March 1994, because my clients were pressuring Prudential to offer them higher settlements. It worked, and I obtained excellent settlements for my clients.

I represented a group of Dallas investors who had been defrauded by Merrill Lynch stockbroker Brion Randall, who had befriended many of my clients in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Though the amounts are confidential, my clients received very good settlements.

I represented 63 plaintiffs in a class action court case against Salomon Smith Barney. My clients were all employees at Bellsouth Corporation who were pitched in seminars to take early retirement and invest their savings with Salomon Smith Barney. The problem was that the brokers promised the employees they would get 12% a year, encouraging them to take vacations and spend money.

In 2011, I recovered for an 87-year-old man his losses of over $1 million, attorneys fees of $225,000 and costs in a case that involved complex variable annuities. The award is one of the largest against the firm.

I represented one of the victims of a massive fraudulent scheme by a stockbroker named Frank Gruttadauria. The SEC Complaint stated the broker's misdeeds best a period of many years, Gruttadauria told customers that he had bought or sold securities for their accounts when, in fact, he had misappropriated their funds for his own purposes. The broker went to prison for 15 years; meanwhile, my client had lost millions. After months of discovery battles, I flew to Cleveland ready to begin the arbitration the next morning. My hotel phone rang at 11:00 pm — opposing counsel wanting to talk settlement. The case settled at 3:00 am. My client was tired but very, very happy.

A multi-party arbitration where I represented 40 older residents of Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania against Ameritrade. The bad actor was investment advisor Robert Bard, whose father was the minister in this small community. Bard presented himself as a man of strong moral values, attended church with many of my clients, and that is how he came to manage their money. He opened institutional accounts at Ameritrade and proceeded to decimate them. Our claim was against Ameritrade for not properly responding to red flags. Bard is now serving time in prison. The case settled in mediation for a very nice sum, and my clients, who had lost a large portion of their life savings, recovered those losses.

I represented a nurse anesthesiologist who entrusted his life savings to his best friend, a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch (notice a trend of clients whose stockbroker was a good friend?). We arbitrated the case and recovered $500,000 in damages, $100,000 in attorneys fees and $25,000 in costs.

I represented a woman whose account was mishandled by a Morgan Stanley stockbroker. After arbitrating the case, the Panel wrote: "The Panel finds that the Respondent violated Federal and state securities laws and Respondent affected unauthorized, unsuitable and excessive trades in claimant's account, made misstatements and omissions in connection with the sale and purchase of securities to the Claimant, and failed to supervise its stockbroker." You cannot ask for a better finding than that. The Panel entered a make-whole award — $152,883 in damages, $101,922 in attorneys fees and $25,000 in costs.

Securities arbitration typically involves only financial losses. In this case I represented a woman whose stockbroker had not only lost a lot of her money through inappropriate trading — he also sexually harassed her and caused her mental anguish. We arbitrated the case, and the Panel awarded my client her losses, her attorneys fees, and her costs, plus $85,000 as damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery. This type of award is very rare in securities arbitrations.