NAPLES, Fla., Oct. 4, 2013 — This week, the law firms of Vernon Litigation Group and Dovin Malkin & Ficken filed another multimillion-dollar FINRA arbitration relating to the sale of high-commission, high-risk, and illiquid products, including non-traded REITs. These products were sold by financial advisor Paul Larsen. Due to the actions of Larsen—as well as the compliance breakdowns in supervising Larsen—a physician and his wife of more than 50 years are now in a precarious financial position. The supervision and compliance failures are reflected in Mr. Larsen’s FINRA regulatory record, which includes numerous investor complaints, the majority of which have been filed by the law firms of Vernon Litigation Group and Dovin Malkin & Ficken.
Prior to trusting their investments to Larsen and the brokerage firm with which he was employed, the clients invested primarily in large blue-chip stocks, mutual funds, and fixed-income investments. Larsen liquidated these investments, under the guise of getting away from the risk of the markets, and replaced the stocks, bonds, and funds, with high-risk products that Larsen represented to be safe, income-generating opportunities offered to his best clients. As a result, the clients’ portfolio has been devastated. It is troubling that a physician and his wife must now be concerned about their financial future due to the actions of a rogue broker.
The FINRA arbitration claim alleges damages in excess of $2 million relating to the sale of investments such as Atlas America Public Fund #14, Ridgewood Energy Fund Q, Ridgewood Energy Fund S, KBS REIT, Colorado Water Capital Group LLC, UKAG Group LLC, Issacher Global Management LLC, Puritan/Yokam, Puritan Capital Group LLC, and Platte Water Group I LLC/Yokam.
According to attorney Chris Vernon of Vernon Litigation Group, “many of the less savory financial professionals, such as Larsen, who sell risky and illiquid products that pay high commissions are accessing investors through investment seminars in Florida.”
Eventually, Larsen was fired. However, in the case filed this week, the firm’s representatives did not call the clients to notify them that Larsen was no longer with the firm. In fact, Mr. Larsen continued to be listed as the broker on the clients’ accounts for almost two more years. Larsen was even permanently barred from the securities industry by FINRA before the clients were informed of any problem relating to Larsen.
According to attorney Sandy Malkin of Dovin Malkin & Ficken, “the claims are for compensatory damages in excess of $2 million for Florida Securities and Investor Protection Act violations, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, and negligence.”
The legal team of Vernon Litigation Group and Dovin Malkin & Ficken continue to represent multiple investors across the country who have collectively suffered more than $10 million in losses from non-traded REITs such as Behringer Harvard, KBS, Wells, Inland, CNL, Lightstone, and Cole, among others. If you are concerned about your non-traded REIT investment and the circumstances under which the investment was offered and sold to you, please contact Vernon Litigation Group toll-free at (239) 319-4434 or by e-mail at mailto:info@vernonlitigation.com.