SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 17, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Four nationally recognized securities law firms have joined together as one legal team as advocates representing investors who suffered investment losses at UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico ("UBS Puerto Rico") in UBS-affiliated closed-end, Puerto Rico bond funds. Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A., Silver Law Group, former Puerto Rico Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, Esq., and Post & Romero, (the "Law Firms") urge investors who lost money in UBS Puerto Rico Bond Funds to consider what recourse is available to recover their investment losses.
Legal team member, Jeffrey B. Kaplan of Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A., asserts that "UBS and its affiliates were the Investment Manager, Underwriter, and seller for the UBS family of bond funds marketed and sold to Puerto Rico residents. UBS should have known of the enormous risks associated with the geographic concentration of the fund assets and the use of leverage, but it nonetheless recommended and sold these unsuitable investments to many investors who had only conservative and moderate risk tolerance." Kaplan explains, "UBS was responsible for supervising its brokers to make sure that the brokers did not make unsuitable recommendations and sales to investors. The suitability requirements include prohibitions against concentrating too much money in a single security or geographic region and the use of margin or loans to purchase the leveraged UBS proprietary closed-end Puerto Rico bond funds. Based on our review of various investors' accounts, UBS failed miserably at its supervisory obligations."
The Law Firms are investigating investors' losses in the following UBS Bond Funds:
- UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Funds
- UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax Free Funds
- Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Bond Funds
- Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Target Maturity Fund
- Tax Free Puerto Rico Target Maturity Fund
- Puerto Rico Mortgage-Backed & Government Securities Fund
- Puerto Rico GNMA & US Government
The Financial Regulatory Industry Authority (FINRA) rules and regulations were designed to assure compliance with the securities industry standards of care. Scott Silver, of the Silver Law Group maintains that "Investment recommendations of unsuitable securities that result in unsuitable securities concentration and misrepresentation or omissions of material facts are FINRA and internal UBS rule violations that give rise to FINRA arbitration claims that investors can pursue against UBS Financial Service of Puerto Rico."
The Law Firms are committed to protecting investor rights throughout Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican Investors who are interested in learning how they may be able to recover their UBS Puerto Rico bond fund losses are encouraged to contact the Law Firms. Our legal team of lawyers, including Carlos Romero Barcelo, former two-term Governor of Puerto Rico; Jeffrey Kaplan, a member of the FINRA National Arbitration and Mediation Committee, and Scott Silver, chairman of the Securities Litigation Division of the American Association of Justice, are committed to protecting your legal rights and recovering your investment losses.
If you have questions about your legal rights, or have been the victim of investment fraud, please contact us at (787) 303-0319 for a free consultation or Toll Free at (888) 578-6255.