Goodman and Nekvasil May Recover Investors Losses | Gopi Vungarala, Financial Advisor Gopi Vungarala Barred by FINRA Pending Appeal
Gopi Vungarala CRD #4856193
Gopi Vungarala was licensed with Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments from 2007 to 2017. FINRA reports that Gopi Vungarala was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity on 10/2/2018 pending an appeal.
According to FINRA, Gopi Vungarala was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that through his member firm, he regularly lied to his customer, a Native American tribe, regarding investments he recommended, and as a result of these misrepresentations and omissions of material facts, Vungarala willfully violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and FINRA Rules 2020 and 2010.
The complaint alleges that in addition to serving as the customer’s registered representative, Gopi Vungarala was employed by the tribe as its treasury investment manager and participated in decisions regarding the tribe’s investments. FINRA reports that Gopi Vungarala fraudulently induced the tribe to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) and business development companies (BDCs), without revealing he and his firm received commissions on the sales (usually seven percent) or the availability of certain volume discounts. FINRA reports that the firm’s supervisory failures led it to fail to detect and prevent Gopi Vungarala’s fraud. Vungarala knew that his customer, the tribe, prohibited its employees, such as himself, from engaging in business activities that could constitute a conflict of interest with the tribe, or that could impair an employee’s ability to make impartial decisions on behalf of the tribe. Notwithstanding these prohibitions and knowing that tribal leaders relied upon his recommendations as treasury investment manager, FINRA reports that Gopi Vungarala recommended the tribe invest more than $190 million in non-traded REITs and BDCs over the course of three years, generating $11.4 million in commissions for his firm, $9.6 million of which was paid to Vungarala.
Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments reported to FINRA on May 4, 2017 an arbitration claim was filed alleging failure to know customer and recommend suitable investments, failure to disclose volume discounts, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and rescission (17-00885). This complaint is currently pending.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a Clearwater, Florida, law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, continues to investigate brokerage firms that placed elderly retirees and other conservative investors in high-risk investments.
Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA, has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years. We would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., has filed hundreds of cases against brokerage firms selling high-risk investments and has recovered more than $180 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors. We allege in these cases that these investment recommendations were unsuitable for our clients in view of their financial situation, needs and investment objectives. All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis.
There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf. Finally, the filing of such a case should not affect your ownership of these investments in any way.
If you incurred losses on your investment with Gopi Vungarala and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.
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