Smiley Bishop & Porter LLP has represented a number of individual and institutional investors who bought shares of Morgan Keegan’s RMK High Yield Bond Funds. RMK Funds were marketed as low risk investments, despite a high concentration in subprime mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. A particular problem was that the funds invested in low […]
East Tennessee Neurology P.C. Profit Sharing Plan v. Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.
Profit sharing plan recovery for losses on RMK Bond Funds (FINRA, 2010) Brian Smiley and Mike Bishop, along with co-counsel, represented the pension plan for a medical practice. The plan’s losses arose from investments solicited in three Regions Morgan Keegan Bond Funds (RMK High Income, RMK Strategic Income, and RMK Multi-Sector Funds). These funds took incredible […]
Perkins and Powell v. Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.
Recovery for losses in RMK Bond Fund (FINRA, 2009) Brian Smiley, Mike Bishop, and our co-counsel obtained an award of full compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees, plus costs for two clients. The claim related to Regions Morgan Keegan’s Select Intermediate Bond Fund. In defending the case, Morgan Keegan used two expert witnesses, including a former chair of […]
Auction Rate Securities
Smiley Bishop & Porter LLP has represented clients with significant losses resulting from investments in Auction Rate Securities (ARS). These securities were sold by virtually every major Wall Street firm and were marketed as a highly liquid, safe investment equivalent to CDs or money markets, but with a higher interest rate. In reality, the auction market was […]
FINRA Blames Morgan Keegan, Not Brokers, For Hiding Risk
Dow Jones quotes Brian Smiley on securities regulators’ charges against Morgan Keegan. Securities regulators’ actions against Morgan Keegan & Co. put its brokers in the same basic category as investors: duped.
Arbitrator Out of Work? Call FINRA
Wall Street Journal cites Brian Smiley on FINRA’s efforts to recruit arbitrators to handle Morgan Keegan claims. Wall Street needs an army of arbitrators to clean up the mess left by the headline-grabbing collapse of three mutual funds stuffed with collateralized debt obligations and other subprime-related securities.
Selling Toxic Debt to Seniors
Business Week quotes Brian Smiley on toxic debt in bond funds sold to seniors. The subprime securities that created carnage on Wall Street are bringing new pain to Main Street. Regulators in five states are investigating whether Memphis brokerage Morgan Keegan failed to disclose the risks of seven mutual funds stuffed with toxic debt and […]
