NEW YORK, April 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York City based securities attorneys, Fitapelli Kurta, recently filed an arbitration claim before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, against Wells Fargo Advisors on behalf of two retirees. The complaint seeks unspecified money damages and alleges misconduct by Charles Frieda and Charles Lynch, who are financial advisors employed by Wells Fargo Advisors in Irving, California. The arbitration complaint was filed before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, and alleges that Charles Frieda and Charles Lynch over-concentrated the retirees’ holdings in speculative oil and gas holdings including Magnum Hunter Resources, a company that recently filed for bankruptcy.
According to Fitapelli Kurta partner, Jonathan Kurta, “brokerage firms have an obligation to recommend suitable investments for their customers and it is inappropriate to concentrate a customer’s holdings in one asset class.” In this case, the two retirees allege that Charles Frieda and Charles Lynch concentrated their portfolio in energy investments. The FINRA complaint alleges that this “strategy” resulted in significant losses as the price of oil dropped and the energy sector began to struggle.
According to their FINRA BrokerCheck reports, brokers, Charles Frieda and Charles Lynch, both have long histories of customer complaints. Both brokers have nineteen customer initiated disclosures on their FINRA BrokerCheck report, which include some matters that have settled for significant sums of money.
Fitapelli Kurta is a New York City based law firm that focuses on pursuing securities arbitrations on behalf of customers. If you would like to know more about this case, please contact Marc Fitapelli at 212-658-1501 or Jonathan Kurta at 212-658-1502.