New York City FINRA Arbitration Panel Ordered Hightower Securities to Pay Full Losses to Investor for Investments in GPB Automotive Portfolio and GPB Waste Management
Following a weeklong arbitration hearing in New York City, a FINRA arbitration panel ordered Hightower Securities to pay damages of $163,201, the full amount of his investment losses, to a Connecticut resident represented jointly by the investment fraud law firms of Meyer Wilson and Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway.
GPB Capital Holdings, led by its CEO David Gentile, ran a Ponzi scheme through the issuance of several private equity funds. On the surface, GPB Capital was a garden variety Ponzi scheme. Investors were promised unwavering 8% returns, but these purported returns were generated not by actual investment returns, but by tapping the capital investments of the next round of investors. GPB Capital was able to keep this enterprise afloat for several years, long enough to generate $1.8 billion in investment capital. A significant percentage of that was siphoned into the pockets of GPB Capital’s principals and the brokerage firms like Hightower that peddled the scheme onto their customers. Gentile and the other schemers have been criminally charged with securities fraud.
The Claimant in this case was sold $170,000 of the GPB funds at the recommendation of his broker and investment adviser at Hightower. After a week-long evidentiary hearing, the arbitration panel ruled that Hightower had to take back the now-defunct GPB funds and return the Claimant his full investment losses.
According to Meyer Wilson Attorney Courtney Werning, who served as counsel for the Claimant, “[w]e presented an abundance of evidence during the final hearing that Hightower failed spectacularly in its due diligence obligations regarding GPB Capital. What Hightower should have known about GPB from the beginning should have precluded it from selling any of the GPB funds to any investor. This case sends an important message to Hightower and all the brokerage firms that raked in enormous commissions for selling investments that were clearly not fit to be sold to anyone.”
For more information about this case, GPB Capital, or other investment loss-related issues please contact one of the attorneys at Meyer Wilson Co., LPA. The law firm is a nationally recognized securities firm representing individual and institutional investors who are victims of investment advisor negligence, fraud, Ponzi schemes, and other investment-related losses.
