NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lawyers with the Securities Law Firm of SHEPHERD SMITH EDWARDS & KANTAS LLP, www.sseklaw.com, are investigating claims involving Mark Christopher Hotton ("Hotton") and Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. ("Oppenheimer"). Hotton, formerly a registered representative of Oppenheimer and several other brokerage firms including American Capital Partners, LLC, Alexander Capital, L.P. and Obsidian Financial Group, has been involved in numerous regulatory investigations and customer complaints over his career in the financial services industry. Recently, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") filed a disciplinary action against Hotton.
According to the complaint, Hotton engaged in huge, long running frauds involving multiple clients. The complaint contains allegations that Hotton stole money from multiple clients in a variety of ways, including creating shell companies controlled directly or indirectly by himself, in which he would then convince clients to invest. The complaint further alleges that Hotton repeatedly forged documents and/or other client authorizations in order to facilitate these frauds, including directly withdrawing money from client accounts through a forged authorization. FINRA has claimed that these funds were all then turned towards Hotton's personal uses, paying for personal credit cards, bank accounts, his personal attorney, as well as being used to pay back other clients to hide the ongoing fraud. All told, these frauds involved many clients and tens of millions of dollars.
If FINRA's allegations are correct, in this level of fraud, typically many clients were mistreated, misled, or otherwise hurt without even realizing that it had occurred. As such, everyone that has ever had an account with Mark Hotton would be wise to carefully review their accounts to ensure that there were not problems. If you are or were a client of Mark Hotton, feel free to contact the law firm of Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas LLP. All communications will be kept strictly confidential, and you will not be billed in any way for a consultation.
Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP has a team of attorneys, consultants and staff with more than 100 years of combined experience in the securities industry and in securities law. For more than two decades, our firm has represented thousands of investors nationwide to recover losses. We have represented clients in Federal and state courts and in arbitration through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the New York Stock Exchange Inc. (NYSE), the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and in private arbitration actions.