Roger Lee Owens (Roger Owens) – Arbitration Claims Filed Involving Financial Advisor, Broker Roger Owens | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. Files Arbitration Claims on Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Fund
Roger Lee Owens (Roger Owens) CRD #2359204
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has filed arbitration claims against Cetera Advisors LLC seeking to recover monies lost by an investor in the fraudulent, Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Fund. Roger Owens has been licensed with Cetera Advisors LLC since 2007.
According to Roger Owens’ CRD, Roger Owens was suspended from the securities industry for 12 months and fined $10,000 in August 2019. Roger Owens was also discharged from Cetera Advisors LLC in April 2019 for alleged violation of firm policies and procedures by participating in unapproved private securities transactions.
According to FINRA:
Roger Owens consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that Roger Owens engaged in private securities transactions without providing notice to, or obtaining approval from, his member firm. The findings stated that Roger Owens solicited investors to purchase promissory notes relating to a purported real-estate investment fund. Owens sold $1,170,000 in promissory notes to investors, four of whom were firm customers. Owens received $59,471 in commissions in connection with these transactions. Later, the fund filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued final judgments against, among others, the fund and its former owner. Those judgments required the fund and its former owner to, among other things, disgorge their ill-gotten gains and also required the former owner to pay a civil penalty. The findings also stated that Roger Owens falsely attested in compliance questionnaires that he had not engaged in any private securities transactions without receiving prior written approval from his firm.
According to the SEC:
On December 20, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an action alleging that the Woodbridge investment was a massive Ponzi scheme, and that new investor money was used to pay the returns owed to existing investors. The SEC also alleges that Woodbridge’s business model was a sham, and that Woodbridge and Woodbridge’s owner and President, Robert H. Shapiro, misused and misappropriated investor monies. The SEC points out that Woodbridge admits in its bankruptcy filing that it has less than $12 million in its bank accounts while having investor liabilities approaching $1 billion.
The SEC also alleges that many of the properties Woodbridge purchased remain as vacant lots that have set undeveloped for several years. According to the SEC, nearly all of the purported third-party borrowers were actually limited liability companies owned and controlled by Woodbridge, which had no revenue, no bank accounts and never paid any interest under the loans.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. May Recover Investor Losses:
If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds through Roger Owens, you may be able to recover your losses from Cetera Advisors LLC. This is because Cetera Advisors LLC had a duty to supervise Roger Owens.
If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds through Roger Owens, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action against Cetera Advisors LLC concerning Roger Owens’ 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. You will continue to own your claim in the Woodbridge Bankruptcy; our case involves a separate, additional avenue of recovery.
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 $170 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds with Roger Owens 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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