Category Archives: General
Former Federal Prosecutor and Candidate for Palm Beach County State Attorney, Dina Keever, Joins Rabin Kammerer Johnson
Our firm welcomes Dina Keever, who is joining the firm as Senior Counsel. Dina is an exceptionally talented and skilled lawyer, having served as a federal prosecutor in both the Southern District of Florida and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is a former law clerk to Judge Peter Fay of the United States… Read More »
Florida Updates LLC Laws to Attract New Business to the State
Florida’s Legislature has unanimously passed Senate Bill 1300 (the “Bill”) aimed at updating the state’s decades-old limited liability company (LLC) laws. The Bill will first take effect on January 1, 2014. Florida’s LLC laws date back to 1982, when the state was the second in the nation, after Wyoming, to pass such laws. Since… Read More »
Defense Subcontractor Settles Whistleblower Case
An Alabama-based subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, Robbins, LLC, has settled a False Claims Act retaliation lawsuit brought by its former employee James Brown of Temple, Georgia. According to Brown’s lawsuit, Robbins used an expired ingredient, Elastomag 170, when it made a rubber compound used in making sonar nose cones for U.S…. Read More »
West Palm Beach Attorneys Announce Payment of $3.1 Million Settlement
WEST PALM BEACH – The law firms of Rabin Kammerer Johnson and Bruce E. Reinhart, P.A. announce the payment of a $3.1 Million qui tam settlement, including attorney’s fees, that they and Department of Justice attorneys reached with Midtown Imaging, LLC (“Midtown”) and its former owners for claims alleged by two radiologists (the “Relators”)…. Read More »
Morgan Keegan Settles Fraud Charges for $200 Million
The SEC, state regulators, and FINRA have announced today that Morgan Keegan & Co. and an affiliate have agreed to pay $200 million to settle fraud charges related to subprime mortgage-backed securities. Two Morgan Keegan employees also agreed to pay penalties for their misconduct, The SEC’s order settling the charges finds that Morgan Keegan… Read More »
Group for Colonial Bank and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Charged for $1.5 Billion Kiting Scheme
The SEC has charged Teresa Kelly and Catherine Kissick from Colonial Bank and Lee Farkas and Desiree Brown from TBW with fraud for their various roles in a seven and half year kiting scheme between Colonial Bank and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation totaling approximately $1.5 billion. The four persons charged worked together… Read More »
UBS Under Investigation for Puerto Rico Closed-End Bond Funds
The SEC has issued a Wells notice to UBS regarding secondary market trading of closed-end funds sold in Puerto Rico in 2008 and 2009. UBS, a former financial adviser to Puerto Rico’s Employees Retirement System that provides pensions for government workers, led the 2008 sale of $2.9 billion in bonds. The sale resulted in… Read More »
SEC Charges TD Ameritrade for Failure to Supervise Its Brokers
The SEC has charged TD Ameritrade for failing to supervise its brokers who misled clients who bought shares in the Reserve Yield Plus Fund. Various brokers at the firm violated securities laws when they misrepresented the mutual fund as a money market fund, with the safety of a cash investment and with guaranteed liquidity…. Read More »
SEC Charges Lawyer with Aiding and Abetting Client’s Fraud
The SEC charged the former financial advisor Kenneth Ira Starr, Jonathan Star Bristol, with aiding and abetting Starr’s multi-million dollar fraud by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits for money Starr stole from his clients. The SEC claims that over $25 million of Starr’s clients’ money came through Bristol’s trust… Read More »
Universal Fiduciary-Duty Standard Could Be Costly
In an effort to determine the utility of creating a universal fiduciary-duty standard in the retail investment advice industry, a recent study by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association shows that a potential universal standard could be costly to investors without adjustments being made for special broker-dealer practices. Broker-dealers, who currently adhere to… Read More »