Securities Fraud Attorneys Blog
Stoltmann Law Offices, P.C. is a Chicago-based securities and investor rights law firm that offers representation on a contingency fee basis to victims of investment fraud nationwide. On August 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta) alleging that John Woods “has been running a massive Ponzi scheme for over a decade.” That is the first line of the complaint, which goes on to allege that more than 400 investors are owed over $110,000,000 on alleged investments in Horizon Private Equity Group, III, LLC. The complaint also names Livingston Group Asset Management Company, d/b/a Southport Capital, which is a registered investment adviser firm owned and controlled by John Woods.
The sales pitch for these investments in Horizon promised returns of 6-7% interest guaranteed for 2 or 3 years. These are not the sort of huge returns typically promised in a Ponzi scheme. In fact, these are pretty low returns when compared to the rate of return on the S&P 500 or even alternative investments like non-Traded REITs. Ironically, now disgraced GPB Capital – which is also alleged by the SEC to be a massive Ponzi scheme, promised returns of 8%. This sort of Ponzi scheme is more incendiary and falls into the Bernie Madoff category of promising lower, but consistent, rates of return. Investors who are victims of a Ponzi scheme promising 6-7% returns cannot say they should have known better because it was too good to be true. Woods and his RIA represented that they would take investor funds and invest them in government bonds, stocks, and real estate projects. Investors were never told their money would be used to pay interest to earlier investors, which is what the SEC alleged they did on a massive scale. Horizon did not earn nearly enough returns through legitimate investments to pay investor interest payments and as such had to rely on new investor money to maintain those interest payments – a hallmark of a Ponzi scheme.
Victims need to look to potentially liable third parties for recovery while the SEC freezes Woods’ and Horizon’s assets and begins an accounting process that will likely take years. The first target could be Oppenheimer. According to the SEC complaint and FINRA, Woods was a registered representative for Oppenheimer until he was “asked to resign” in 2016 for failing to accurately disclose his involvement with Southport and Horizon. Many of his Oppenheimer clients invested in Southport and Horizon and unless Oppenheimer reached out to each of those clients and warned them that what Woods was doing was, at a minimum, not fully disclosed to Oppenheimer in violation of FINRA rules, then Oppenheimer could have liability to victims here. Further, the SEC complaint states that Horizon primarily used two banks to move money, Bank of America and Iberiabank. They also used a custodial trust company. These entities, depending on the details of their involvement, could also have liability to victims of this scam.
Did you or someone you know lose money with John Forsythe? If so, the attorneys at Stoltmann Law Offices are interested in speaking with you about those losses. Mr. Forsythe was previously registered with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, New York. He allegedly executed unsuitable, excessive and unauthorized trades, failed to follow instructions on an options transaction and permitted the execution of trades by an individual who was not a signatory on the accounts. These are against securities laws. Oppenheimer has a duty to reasonably supervise its registered brokers, and, if it does not, can be held liable for losses. Please call 312-332-4200 today if you suffered losses. We may be able to help you bring a claim against Oppenheimer on a contingency fee basis. The call to us is free with no obligation. Before Oppenheimer, Forsythe was registered with CIBC World Markets and First Jersey Securities.
According to a recent Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Jason Likens allegedly borrowed money from two customers without the approval of his firm and made false attestations to his firm on two annual compliance questionnaires. These are against securities rule and regulations. For this he was fined $10,000 and suspended from the industry for 15 months. He was previously registered with Wachovia Securities in St. Louis, Missouri from January 2004 until January 2004, UBS in Asheville, North Carolina from March 2005 until November 2008, Stanford Group Company in Asheville from November 2008 until March 2009, Oppenheimer in Asheville from March 2009 until August 2016 and International Assets Advisory in Orlando, Florida from August 2016 until February 2017. He has three customer disputes against him, and he is currently not registered within the industry. Please call our securities law firm today to find out how you may be able to recover your losses by suing Oppenheimer on a contingency fee basis, which means we only get paid if your recover your losses. Please call today, as there is a statute of limitations on most cases.
Beth DuToit has received two regulatory sanctions and was terminated from her most recent employer. She allegedly “had customers sign a blank form to facilitate the transfer of multiple accounts to the firm rather than have the customers sign transfer request forms for each of the accounts transferred.” Dutoit then submitted the forms with photocopied signatures to the firm as authentic. This was against securities laws. The Oklahoma Department of Securities sanctioned her in 2015 after allegations surfaced that she duplicated customer signatures on documents and placed a client’s initials on a firm document without the individual’s consent. This is also against securities laws. For this, she was issued a six month suspension and placed on heightened supervision for two years. More recently, she was issued a three month suspension and fined $5,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
According to a recent Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Barbara Dalton Russell was accused of being involved in an outside business activity without providing full and complete written notice to her member firm, Divine Capital. This is against securities rules and regulations. The misconduct occurred between August 2013 and December 2013. For this, she was fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member firm in any and all capacities for a period of two months.
Stoltmann Law Offices has learned that Bambi Holzer, a former representative with Newport Coast Securities has been permanently barred from the industry. Allegedly, Ms. Holzer made unsuitable recommendations, misrepresented material facts, breached fiduciary duty, made unsuitable transactions and made unsuitable recommendations involving private placement securities, among other transgressions. She was registered with Wedbush Securities at the time of the allegations. She has been permanently barred from the industry.
