Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses – Stephen Jay Landa (Stephen Landa) Suspended from Securities Industry and Resigned from Invest Financial Corporation
From 2005 until Stephen Landa’s resignation in 2015, Stephen Landa was licensed with Invest Financial Corporation. According to FINRA’s records, Stephen Landa resigned from Invest Financial Corporation on August 5, 2015. Invest Financial Corporation reported to FINRA that at the time of termination, a review of Stephen Landa’s client’s accounts was being conducted for possible violations concerning mutual funds.
Subsequent to Stephen Landa’s termination, FINRA investigated Stephen Landa and brought a disciplinary action against Stephen Landa. Stephen Landa consented to a 2 month suspension from the securities and investment banking industry, a $5,000 fine and an $18,156.53 restitution order on May 17, 2017. Stephen Landa also consented to the entry of findings that Stephen Landa employed an unsuitable short-term mutual fund trading strategy in the individual account of a customer and the joint account of the customer and another customer. The findings stated that at the time, the customers were both 60 years of age or older, retired, and living on fixed incomes. Also, according to FINRA, both of them had conservative investment objectives and moderate risk tolerances. Nevertheless, on occasions, according to FINRA, Stephen Landa recommended that the customers purchase mutual fund shares and then, shortly thereafter, recommended that they sell the shares. According to FINRA, Stephen Lands did not have a reasonable basis for believing that such transactions were suitable. According to FINRA, even though mutual funds are intended as longer-term investments, Stephen Landa recommended that the customers sell the mutual fund shares after an average holding period of fewer than six months. Also, according to FINRA, all of these transactions involved Class A mutual fund shares, which included front-end sales loads.
FINRA reports that an arbitration claim was filed involving Stephen Landa’s conduct with Invest Financial Corporation, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and misrepresentation regarding Tenants in Common-1031 Exchange. This arbitration claim was settled for $200,000.
If you lost any money on investments with Stephen Landa, you may be able to recover your losses from Invest Financial Corporation. This is because Invest Financial Corporation had a duty to supervise Stephen Landa.
If you lost money on investments with Stephen Landa, 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 Invest Financial Corporation concerning Stephen Landa’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.
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. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered more than $300 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Stephen Landa 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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