Chapman LLC received an award of 100% out-of-pocket damages against Multi-Financial Securities, Corp. and its registered representative, Donna Sulzbach for selling unsuitable variable annuity investments to the claimant.  The panel also awarded punitive damages, nearly doubling the award, for what it considered to be a “conscious disregard for the rights of claimant.”

Chapman LLC filed claims on behalf of investors, many of them elderly, who were victimized in the ETS Payphone Ponzi scheme.  Investors purchased ETS Payphone investments through Marie Foil, a registered representative of Walnut Street Securities.  In one case, Chapman LLC received an award for more than $1 million for 17 investors against Walnut Street Securities.  Chapman LLC settled claims on behalf of 24 other investors who lost money in the scheme.

Waterstones was a self-styled “internet kiosk development firm” that sold the public internet kiosks through Emerging Business Concepts.  The customers would then “lease-back” the kiosks to the company.  Customers never took actual possession of the kiosks.  They were guaranteed high rates of return for this “risk-free” investment.  Waterstones was an elaborate Ponzi scheme.  Chapman LLC helped 15 investors recover money from a brokerage firm through a confidential settlement.

Chapman LLC represented a client who invested his retirement savings in a Ponzi scheme that was recommended to him by his stockbroker as a safe and profitable investment. The Ponzi scheme was the “Universal Lease” scam perpetrated by Michael E. Kelly under the names of Resort Holdings International, Yucatan Resorts, and Avalon Resorts. We filed claims on behalf of our client against the broker-dealer who employed the registered agent, claiming that the broker-dealer breached its duty to supervise the agent and prevent him from selling unregistered securities to his customer. We successfully settled the case on behalf of our client.

In this case, several Ohio residents invested in a fraudulent real estate scheme. Joanne Schneider, the perpetrator of the scheme, promised returns as high as 16 percent annually, but in reality the payments were made to earlier investors by using later investors’ money. A registered representative recommended this real estate scam to his customers as a solid investment. We filed claims on behalf of investors, including retirees, who bought into this ponzi scheme, against the broker-dealer who was supposed to supervise its registered agent and prevent him from selling unregistered investments to his customers. We successfully settled the case on behalf of our clients.

Chapman LLC represented a group of over 110 victims of a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by a Pennsylvania investment advisor. That investment advisor created a sham “residential mortgage” business that purported to offer investors above-market returns. In reality, there was no business, and the investment advisor was using money from later investors to pay supposed “returns” to earlier investors. That investment advisor was affiliated with a prominent brokerage firm during the time he perpetrated his scheme. We brought a “failure to supervise” claim against the brokerage firm and reached a successful settlement on behalf of all our clients.

Chapman LLC represented a family of Texas investors who invested in a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by George Hudgins in the Dallas area. Hudgins claimed to be a sophisticated currency trader and organized an elaborated Ponzi scheme disguised as a hedge fund. He solicited investors both directly and through salesmen. Our clients were introduced to the Hudgins scheme by their financial advisor. That financial advisor was affiliated with a prominent broker-dealer firm, owned by a large insurance company. We brought a “failure to supervise” case against that financial advisor’s broker-dealer firm and successfully settled the case on behalf of our clients.

Chapman LLC represented 11 individuals who were defrauded by their trusted, long-time financial advisor.  Their advisor assured them he could safely invest their retirement savings in municipal bonds.  Based on his assurances, investors entrusted their advisor with his money. The advisor issued periodic statements to his customers, showing supposed increases in their government bond portfolios. In reality, the advisor had appropriated their money, and used part of it to make “dividend” payments to earlier investors, in “Ponzi” scheme fashion. Chapman LLC successfully settled investor claims against the broker-dealer that employed the financial advisor.

Chapman LLC represented 13 investors recover money lost in the EM Management investment scheme.  The scheme was operated by Frank Bluestein.  Chapman LLC was able to successfully settle investor claims with the brokerage firm that employed Frank Bluestein while he was soliciting EM Management investments.

Chapman LLC represented a group of individuals who invested money in the TGBG Financial Planning scheme.  The perpetrator of the fraudulent scheme promised his customers that he would invest in gold bullion, oil and gas, bonds and promissory notes.  Instead, he simply used the money he raised to pay earlier investors.  Chapman LLC reached a successful settlement with the brokerage firm that employed the perpetrator of the scheme.

Chapman LLC represented a husband and wife who lost money in unsuitable investment funds including Medical Capital, the IMH Loan Fund, the Behringer Harvard REIT and the Inland American REIT.  Chapman LLC successfully settled their claims against the individual stockbroker and brokerage firm that recommended the investments to them.

Two stockbrokers employed by ProEquities, Inc. and QA3 Financial Corp., successively, offered securities through their company, Advanced Asset Strategies.  They claimed returns of 15-18% in a program offered by an attorney, Robert Copeland.  Chapman LLC represented 60 investors in three separate cases.  Two cases went to hearing and one settled.  Chapman LLC recovered approximately $2 million in losses for investors through settlement and arbitration awards.

Chapman LLC brought claims on behalf of 120 investors against brokerage firms that approved unregistered Medical Capital and Shale Royalties securities for sale to investors.  Provident/Shale Royalties was a Ponzi scheme that victimized investors nationwide.  The organizers of the scheme told investors their funds would be used to purchase interests in oil and gas real estate and finance new exploration and development projects.  Medical Capital was a Ponzi scheme that offered unregistered investment funds to the public that would purportedly be used to help fund troubled hospitals and health-care facilities.  Chapman LLC reached a confidential settlement with the brokerage firms that were offering the Provident/Shale Royalties and Medical Capital securities for sale.

Chapman LLC recently succeeded in negotiating favorable settlement terms for 140 clients who were victimized in a national Ponzi scheme headquartered in northern Florida. Most of the claimants were current or retired Federal government agency employees It was one of the firm’s largest-ever settlements, and, as lead counsel John Chapman commented: “One of our most successful engagements ever, when measured by the most important criteria: the percentage of each client’s losses that we succeeded in putting back in their pockets.”  Chapman LLC is still taking investors for new claims against the broker-dealers.  If you lost money McLeod’s FEBG scheme, please contact us.

Chapman LLC successfully settled claims against a large brokerage firm on behalf of 71 individuals who invested money in JCR Ponzi scheme.  In a subsequent case, Chapman LLC was able to settle the claims of 8 more JC Reed investors.  The JCR scheme was originated and operated by John C. Reed and Barron Mathis.  Reed and Mathis told investors that they would invest their money in growth-oriented, traditional instruments, such as investments with fixed annual returns or in established marketable securities.  They promoted investments in their program as safe.  Reed and Mathis assured investors that JCR was profitable.  The company was not profitable.  Virtually all of its operating capital came from shareholder investments.  If you lost money in the JC Reed investment scheme, please contact us.  We may be able to help you recover losses.

Chapman LLC settled claims on behalf of 19 people who invested in promissory notes issued by a Nebraska insurance agency called First Americans.  First Americans purported to engage in the business of providing insurance services primarily to Native American tribes.  The promissory note investments promised a 12-16% return.  In a statement of claim filed on behalf of investors against a national broker-dealer, Chapman LLC alleged that First Americans used financial professionals to help solicit its unregistered promissory note securities.  Chapman LLC recently filed another First Americans case which has not yet resolved.  If you have lost money in First Americans and would like to join our suit, please contact us right away.

Chapman LLC represented a family that invested money in the fraudulent Creviston Mutual Fund. Days after they made their investment, the perpetrator of the scheme fraudulently transferred the money to other investors who were threatening to sue him.  Chapman LLC successfully recovered the money for its clients from the later investors.