Keystone Capital Partners – SEC Files Civil Action | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
Securities and Exchange Commission Files Civil Action Against Keystone Capital Partners
ACCORDING TO THE SEC:
Between approximately March 2012 and November 2014, (the “Relevant Period”), Christopher Laws, Jonathan Cooke, Danny Hood, and Brandon Long, each of whom were registered representatives of a broker dealer (collectively, the “Representatives”), fraudulently induced federal employees to rollover significant funds from their federal retirement accounts, referred to as Thrift Savings Plan (“TSP”) accounts, into variable annuity products promoted under the banner of an entity called Keystone Capital Partners, Inc. d/b/a Federal Employee Benefits Counselors.
Motivated by the prospect of high commissions associated with the variable annuities, the Representatives targeted federal employees, age 59 1/~ and over, who had significant TSP account holdings that could be rolled over on a tax-free basis into variable annuities held in qualified plans at annuity carriers.
Defendants employed several tactics calculated to mislead federal employees into believing that Defendants and their recommended investment (that is, a variable annuity) were affiliated with or approved by the federal government. For example, despite the fact that their recommended investments had no connection to the TSP, the Representatives, in recommending this investment: (a) made misleading comparisons between their recommended investment and the life annuity offered through the TSP by omitting key information, falsely describing the actual fee structure and surrender fees related to their recommended investment; (b) used an eagle-encircled insignia on other documents given to customers and on their website that resembled the official seal of various agencies of the federal government; and (c) used a name, Federal Employee Benefits Counselors, that insinuated that they were affiliated with the federal government while obscuring the fact that they were associated with a broker dealer.
Further adding to the false impression that their investment was affiliated with or approved by the TSP, the Representatives combined into one form the documents the Representative needed to purchase the variable annuity with the portions of the official TSP Form that was needed to transfer funds from the federal employees’ TSP accounts, and referred to the variable annuity investment using terminology from an official TSP form.
In truth, the variable annuities that Defendants offered and sold were privately-issued, separate and apart from the TSP and the federal government, and had much higher costs than alternatives available through the TSP. Moreover, the Representatives had no affiliation with, and were not approved or vetted by, the federal government.
During the Relevant Period, Defendants sold approximately 200 variable annuities with a total face value of over approximately $40 million to federal employees, who used monies rolled over from their TSP accounts to fund their purchases, and the Representatives collectively earned approximately $1.7 million in commissions on these sales.
Investors in Keystone Capital Partners May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in Keystone Capital Partners Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. may help you. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a Clearwater, Florida, law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, has recovered more than $180 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors.
All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis by Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA. Kalju Nekvasil, Esq. has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years.
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.
If you incurred investment losses in Keystone Capital Partners 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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