SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 3, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lawyers with the Securities Law Firm of Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP, www.sseklaw.com, are investigating claims involving Puerto Rico UBS bond funds. UBS has been the most prominent broker dealer operating in Puerto Rico for a number of years. As a result, many, if not most, individuals in Puerto Rico with brokerage accounts use UBS, resulting in UBS managing roughly $10 billion of assets of Puerto Rico residents.
Unfortunately, UBS recommended that many of these clients make significant investments in proprietary UBS bond funds. These bond funds, such as the Tax Free Puerto Rico Fund II, invest primarily in Puerto Rico municipal bonds. Many of these funds are also highly leveraged, meaning that the fund borrows more money than investors have actually put into the fund. This strategy is used to attempt to increase the funds returns, but it also significantly increases the risks to the investors.
According to a number of complaints that have been recently made, many Puerto Rico UBS brokers also recommended that their clients borrow funds, either through traditional borrowing such as a home equity loan or through a margin account, to invest even larger amounts into these proprietary funds. The net result is layers and layers of borrowed money being used to buy more securities, which exponentially increases the risks the investors carried. Ultimately, many of these funds fell drastically in value, resulting in catastrophic losses for many investors.
Many customers have filed complaints alleging that these types of investment recommendations were in violation of applicable laws and regulations. If you are or were a customer of UBS in Puerto Rico within the last six years, contact the law firm of Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas LLP for an evaluation of your account to determine if you might have a claim to attempt to recover some or all of your losses. 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 throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and internationally to recover losses suffered through brokerage firms and banks. 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.