Matthew Aaron Bell (Matt Bell), Financial Advisor Charged by the SEC | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses
From August 2013 until Matt Bell’s termination in October 2013, Matt Bell was licensed with Securities America, Inc. Matt Bell was previously licensed with WFG Investments, Inc. According to FINRA’s records, Matt Bell was discharged from Securities America, Inc. on October 1, 2013. Securities America, Inc. reported to FINRA that Matt Bell was accused of violating Firm policies and procedures relating to private securities transactions.
According to FINRA, Matt Bell was previously terminated by WFG Investments, Inc. on June 20, 2013. WFG Investments, Inc. reported to FINRA that Matt Bell was accused of participating in settlement discussions with a client without the involvement of the Firm’s compliance department.
FINRA reports that the SEC has charged Matt Bell and others with a pump and dump scheme. According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the CEO and president of a purported merchant banking firm – Abraxas “A.J.” Discala and Marc E. Wexler – teamed up with brokers Matthew A. Bell and Craig L. Josephberg as well as Ira Shapiro, CEO of the medical education company CodeSmart, to inflate the price of the company’s stock and profit at the expense of the brokers’ customers. The SEC reports that they acquired 3 million restricted shares of CodeSmart stock following its reverse merger into a public shell company in May 2013, and improperly flooded the market with the shares as though they were unrestricted. The SEC reports that they then engaged in a promotional campaign to hype the stock with Shapiro issuing materially misleading CodeSmart press releases that were sometimes edited by Discala. The SEC reports that meanwhile Matt Bell and Josephberg invested their brokerage clients in CodeSmart, often using their retirement funds to purchase the purportedly unrestricted shares. The SEC reports that once Discala and Wexler reduced their trading and Matt Bell and Josephberg dumped their own shares on the market, CodeSmart’s stock price crashed to earth from a peak of nearly $7 per share.
FINRA reports that 38 complaints and/or arbitration claims were filed involving Matt Bell’s conduct with Securities America, Inc., WFG Investments, Inc. and/or a prior employer, alleging unsuitable recommendations, sales practice violations, breach of contract, unauthorized trading, omissions of material fact and/or other allegations. These complaints and/or arbitration claims all settled, with the largest settling for $1,054,000.
FINRA also reports that 2 arbitration claims involving Matt Bell’s conduct with WFG Investments, Inc. have been filed, alleging misrepresentation contained within offering documents, unsuitable recommendations, breach of fiduciary duty, failure to conduct due diligence and/or failure to execute due care. These 2 arbitration claims are currently pending, with one claim seeking damages of $1,750,000.
If you lost any money on investments with Matt Bell, you may be able to recover your losses from WFG Investments, Inc. and/or Securities America, Inc. This is because WFG Investments, Inc. and Securities America, Inc. had a duty to supervise Matt Bell.
If you lost money on investments with Matt Bell and believe that the investments may have been unsuitable or otherwise improper for you, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action against WFG Investments, Inc. and/or Securities America, Inc. concerning Matt Bell’s conduct. 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.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered approximately $170 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Matt Bell 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.