Stockbroker Fraud Lawsuits

Stockbroker fraud can rob innocent people of their retirement or even their life savings. Unfortunately, Stockbroker misconduct, and even stockbroker fraud, have become more common in the last few years. Have you become the victim of stockbroker fraud? If you have, our stockbroker fraud lawyers can help you recover losses caused by the fraudulent actions of stockbrokers and their firms. Stockbroker fraud or inappropriate behavior include trades involving stocks, bonds, commodities, mutual funds, "penny" stocks, "junk" bonds, as well as other investments performed by your stockbroker.

What is Stockbroker Fraud?

There are many categories of stockbroker fraud. Typically, stockbroker fraud consists of inappropriate actions of your stockbroker or the brokerage firm. Besides the obvious illegal behavior such as theft, other types of stockbroker misconduct includes churning, unauthorized transactions, unsuitable investments, or even incompetence and negligence by stockbrokers.

Common Stockbroker Fraud Cases

The most common stockbroker fraud cases include:

Conflict of Interest
Continuing a Risk
Improper Investment Advice
Stock Churning
Stock Unsuitability
Stock Overconcentration
Stock Misrepresentation
Stockbroker Negligence
Unauthorized Trading

Stockbroker Fraud: Conflict of Interest

If your stockbroker or brokerage firm has outside ties to a business and sells you that stock, they may have acted ouit of a conflict of interest. Your stockbroker should offer you the best investment for your needs, not the conflicted needs of the stock brokerage firm.

Stockbroker Fraud: Continuing a Risk

If your stockbroker advises you to hold stocks based on speculation or uncertain future events, even though the risks are obvious and the potential gain is unlikely, then the stockbroker has put you in a situation of "continuing a risk".

Stockbroker Fraud: Improper Investment Advice

Improper investment advice includes biased investment advice, unfounded advice or contradictory advice. Biased investment advice often occurs as a result of the stockbroker's or brokerage's desire to move a certain stock based on fees they will receive, not the based on the needs of the client. Unfounded advice occurs when a stockbroker gives investment without doing proper research or due diligence. A stockbroker is said to have given contradictory advice when they give conflicting advice to different clients.

Stockbroker Fraud: Churning

"Stock churning" is considered excessive trading in your account in an attempt to generate excessive commissions at your expense. A stockbroker churns your account simply to make more money. To prove your broker has churned your account, our lawyers look for excessive trading activity. If you feel your broker is buying and selling securities in an effort to fraudulently earn excessive commissions, your may be a victim of stock churning. Contact our stockbroker fraud lawyers to evaluate your case.

Stockbroker Fraud: Unsuitability

Stockbrokers have a duty to understand which investments are suitable for their clients, based on individual clients needs and investment objectives. Brokers also have a duty to understand each customer's risk tolerance and financial ability to incur the risk associated with their investment. In other words, if a stockbroker asks you to invest in a stock that he knows is an unsuitable investment for you, then you might be a victim of unsuitability.

Your stockbroker also has a duty to explain all risks associated with a particular investment. If your stockbroker did not explain the risks of an investment to you, he may be committing stockbroker fraud.

Basically, it is your stockbroker's duty to understand your investment needs and recommend appropriate investments. If your stockbroker made unsuitable investment recommendations to you, he may be liable for your stock losses.

Stockbroker Fraud: Overconcentration

One of the "golden rules" of investing in stock is to diversify your portfolio. If a stockbroker fails to diversify your portfolio, he may be potentially liable of overconcentration, and therefore liable for your losses in the stock market.

Stockbroker Fraud: Misrepresentations and/or Omissions

A stockbroker is required to disclose material facts regarding each investment. If your broker failed to disclose material facts, and/or misrepresented material facts in order to get you to invest in a particular stock, he may have committed stockbroker fraud, and may be liable for your losses.

Inappropriate Stockbroker Activity

Stockbroker fraud and inappropriate stockbroker activity comes in many forms. While churning, unsuitability, over concentration and misrepresentations are the most common forms of stockbroker fraud, there are many other ways in which stockbrokers can act inappropriately. These inappropriate actions include:

execution failures
excessive mark-ups
disappearing funds
botched transfers
web-broker outages
"selling away" from firms
unregistered brokers
unregistered securities
improper margin liquidations
broker bribes
fraudulent research

Arbitration

If you have suffered serious losses because of stockbroker fraud, stockbroker negligence or other inappropriate stockbroker, you could be forced into arbitration whith your stock brokerage firm. You should be represented by an experienced stock broker fraud lawyer in arbitration with a brokerage firm. Contact the Rasansky Law Firm to discuss how our lawyers can help you.

Contact A Stockbroker Fraud Lawyer Today

Contact one of our stockbroker fraud lawyers to discuss your case today. You can submit your stockbroker fraud case, or just ask a question, it's free, and you pay absolutely nothing until we win your case.