Brian Smiley co-authored an article for FINRA’s official publication for its arbitrators. The article, “Keeping the Arbitration Moving: Enforcing Discovery Deadlines and Legitimate Information Requests” emphasized the importance of arbitrators requiring parties to comply with discovery obligations and schedules. Brian’s co-author was Theodore A. Krebsbach, a well-known defense lawyer.
$700K Closes the Door on A.G. Edwards Fraud Case
Brokerage firm settles with state over sales practices at Proctor & Gamble plant in Augusta Brokerage firm A.G. Edwards & Sons will pay a $500,000 fine and reimburse the state $200,000 for its investigation into stock fraud, bringing to a close a case that resulted in the largest securities settlement ever in Georgia.
Investors Growl as Bear Market Losses Sink In
Columnist Andrew Leckey cites Brian Smiley on a broker’s duties. Investing is not a game. That point is brutally driven home during every bear market, when dreams are shattered and investors doubt themselves, their brokers and even the financial system.
Heard Off The Street: Burned Investors Find Bear Can Bring Out Worst in Broker
Brian Smiley: “99 times out of 100, if a broker is liable, the firm is.” In the spring of 2000, just as the 2 1/2-year stock market slide was getting under way, Rickey Miller of Homer City was a little uneasy about his portfolio as he headed off on a cruise to Tahiti. So he […]
Old NFL Man Trusts His Money to Another But Soon Regrets It
The Wall Street Journal reports on large award for former NFL star represented by Mike Bishop and Brian Smiley ATLANTA — As a defensive end in the National Football League, Larry Roberts worried about blowing his newfound fortune. His pay had soared to $1.6 million, but he knew he had just a few years to […]
Amateur Investors Often Make Ill-Advised Moves In Bumpy Market
Brian Smiley comments on mismarketed limited partnership investments. New York — Even Warren Buffett can blow it big-time with a rotten pick. Just ask him about the $358 million stake in USAir in 1989 that’s worth about half that today. If a current-day deity can blunder in placid markets, imagine the potential for crashing a […]
Wall Street: With The New Year, New Scams
New York Times quotes Brian Smiley on investment scams. An investor stampede for mutual funds that invest in “Republican” investment plays? A brokerage firm that cleans up selling its underwritings of Chinese cellular phone companies to United States municipalities? Where will the financial scams, disasters and embarrassments of 1995 be found? And will the D-word […]
M&A’s $5 Million Existential Crisis
Defective fairness opinion results in a $5 Million award and “existential crisis” in the M&A industry. After the recent arbitration ruling against First Boston, angst has penetrated the once solid and predictable business of issuing fairness opinions
Big Board Panel Orders CS First Boston To Pay $5 Million Over Fairness Report
Brian Smiley mentioned in Wall Street Journal on clients’ $5,000,000 award for misleading M&A fairness opinion. A New York Stock Exchange arbitration panel ordered CS First Boston Inc. to pay a total of $5 million to a group of doctors who claimed that the big investment bank gave a faulty fairness opinion in a 1992 merger […]
Nabih v. Shearson Lehman Hutton
Wealthy international investor recovers losses and fees. Brian Smiley represented an Egyptian accountant who invested funds with a US brokerage firm’s Atlanta office. His broker churned his funds and sent him false information concerning the status of his accounts. An NYSE arbitration panel awarded the client all of his losses, his costs, and his attorneys’ fees. He […]
