Current Investigations

RAIT Financial Trust Investment Losses

Investors in the RAIT Financial Trust (Symbol: RAS) may be entitled to recover their investment losses from the brokerage firms that recommended and sold the investment. RAIT is a real estate investment trust that invested in risky subprime mortgage investments and other speculative collateralized debt obligations without properly disclosing its exposure to those investments. When RAIT finally disclosed its exposure to those investments, RAIT's stock dropped in value by approximately 36% in a matter of days. We believe that brokerage firms who recommended the RAIT Financial Trust had an obligation to know the essential facts about the investments that they sold, including the fact that RAIT had significant exposure to risky investments. We are investigating arbitration claims before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") against brokerage firms that recommended and sold the stock to investors. We believe investors will achieve better results on their claims through individual arbitration claims rather than through class action lawsuits because individuals who participate in class action lawsuits often recover only pennies on the dollar. If you lost money the RAIT Financial Trust please contact a lawyer at the law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free case evaluation.

>> To file a claim submission, click here. 

Illiquidity of Auction-Rate Securities

After weeks of claiming that auction rate securities markets were only suffering from a liquidity problem and that investors' principal was safe, UBS finally admitted on March 28, 2008 that investors' principal is dramatically at risk. Specifically, customers who were unable to sell their auction rate securities because of failed auctions had been told that the securities retained full value. That has proved to be false. UBS has announced its decision to mark down the value of those auction rate securities held in customer accounts by as much as 20%. If your broker at UBS, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Raymond James, Morgan Keegan, or any other brokerage firm sold you auction-rate securities, including auction-rate preferred securities and auction-rate closed-end funds, you may have a valid claim to gain access to your illiquid investments and recovery of any losses. Brokers often represented auction rate securities to be safe, liquid investments. But the failure of recent auctions has eliminated the liquidity of many of these securities, making it very difficult or impossible for investors to sell the securities and gain access to their money. If you are stuck in your auction rate securities please contact a lawyer at the law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free case evaluation.

>> To file a claim submission, click here. 

Charles Schwab YieldPlus Fund Losses

Investors in Charles Schwab's ultra-short bond funds the Schwab YieldPlus Fund Investor Shares (Symbol: SWYPX) and the Schwab YieldPlus Fund - Select Shares (Symbol: SWYSX) may be entitled to recover their investment losses. Charles Schwab marketed its YieldPlus funds as safe investments that would provide "higher potential returns than money market funds, with only marginally higher risk." Charles Schwab also represented that its YieldPlus funds were designed to provide "high current income with minimal changes in share price," and that this objective would be accomplished by investing in a "well-diversified" portfolio of bonds with durations of one year or less. But the YieldPlus mutual funds have decreased in value by 25% during the first quarter of 2008. That performance is far worse than the performance of money market funds and other ultra-short bond mutual funds during the same period. DKR believes that those dramatic losses were directly caused by Charles Schwab's mismanagement of the funds. Specifically, the funds apparently were over-concentrated in risky mortgage-backed securities that contained subprime mortgage loans. The Funds also invested heavily in collateralized debt obligations, which are risky structured financial instruments. Many of those investments have no active secondary market, making the securities illiquid with difficult-to-determine values. If you lost money in a Schwab YieldPlus fund please contact a lawyer at the law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free case evaluation.

>> To file a claim submission, click here.

Raymond James and Next Financial Group Broker Barred from Securities Industry

If you lost money in your brokerage account with brokers Gregory Horton at Raymond James or Next Financial Group (“NEXT”) or John Boelke, Jr. at NEXT you may be entitled to recover your investment losses.  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) f/k/a NASD has found that former Raymond James and NEXT broker Greg Horton violated federal securities laws and FINRA conduct rules by making excessive trades or churning his customers’ accounts, causing substantial investment losses.  Greg Horton has been barred from working for FINRA-member brokerage firms.  FINRA continues to investigate whether NEXT supervised its brokers properly.  NEXT broker John Boelke, Jr. also is believed to have made excessive trades in customer accounts, causing significant financial losses.  We have been retained by a number of these brokers’ former customers to recover millions of dollars in investment losses resulting from excessive trading or churning of customer brokerage accounts.  If you lost money at NEXT or Raymond James please contact a lawyer at the law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free case evaluation.

>> To file a claim submission, click here.

Hedge Fund Investment

If you lost money in a hedge fund investment, you may be able to recover your investment losses. (See article concerning a hedge fund manager accused of cheating investors out of $20 million at Bloomberg.com: "Fund Manager Accused of Cheating NFL Players to Pay $20 Million".) Please contact a lawyer at the Florida law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free evaluation of any claims that you may have.

>> To file a claim submission, click here

Raymond James Investment Law

If you lost money at Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., you may be entitled to recover your investment losses. The NASD recently fined Raymond James $2.75 million for failing to maintain an adequate supervisory system nationwide. This includes findings of unsuitable investment recommendations by a Raymond James branch manager and broker in Wisconsin. This lack of proper supervision may have resulted in unsuitable sales of variable annuities, mutual funds, and other investments. (See copy of NASD news release at http://www.nasd.com/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2007NewsReleases/NASDW_018681.) Please contact a lawyer at the law firm of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. for a free evaluation of any claims that you may have.

>> To file a claim submission, click here