Wells Fargo Advisors Ordered to Pay $2.8 Million to Limited Partnership

By Dow Jones Business News, July 09, 2013, 04:07:00 PM EDT By Corrie Driebusch NEW YORK–An arbitration panel has ordered Wells Fargo Advisors to pay $2.8 million to a family limited partnership that accused the firm of negligence in connection with alleged thefts from its investment account. The Miami , Fla.-based partnership had sued a former secretary, accusing her of forging signatures to transfer money out of its accounts, and won a $21 million judgment in a Florida district court in 2010. That suit alleged the secretary, Esther Spero, took the money for her personal use from accounts at Wachovia Securities and elsewhere between 2005 and 2008. Wachovia was later acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC ). In its separate arbitration claim against Wells Fargo, the partnership, called College Health and Investment Ltd., said the brokerage was negligent in failing to detect the alleged theft. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel found Wells Fargo to be liable and ordered that it pay $ 2.3 million in damages and prejudgment interest. Wells Fargo also must also pay $419,000 in margin interest and $35,000 in costs. College Health and Investment Ltd. had requested $4.4 million, according to the arbitration panel ruling. As is customary in the FINRA claims system, the written award did not explain the panel’s reasoning. Robert Wayne Pearce, lawyer for the partnership, said it showed the panel agreed with the negligence claim. A Wells Fargo spokesman said in a statement, “We’re disappointed in the panel’s decision and don’t believe it was warranted by the facts presented during the hearing.” Write to Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@dowjones.com. Dow Jones Newswires 07-09-131607ET Copyright (c) 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Arbitration panel orders Wells Fargo to pay investor $2.8 million

Tue, Jul 9 2013 By Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) – A securities regulator ordered Wells Fargo Advisors LLC to pay $2.8 million to an investor who said the firm failed to detect fraudulent transactions and theft in its account, according to a securities arbitration ruling. College Health and Investment Ltd, a family limited partnership, filed the case in Boca Raton, Florida against the Wells Fargo & Co unit in 2010, according to a ruling posted on Tuesday on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s securities arbitration database. The case stemmed from Wells’ failure to detect alleged theft and unauthorized transactions by an employee of the partnership between 2006 and early 2008, according to Robert Wayne Pearce, a lawyer in Boca Raton, Florida, who represented the partnership. A family limited partnership is an estate planning tool used mainly by wealthy families to preserve their assets and minimize certain tax liabilities. The three-person FINRA securities arbitration panel found Wells liable on July 3 and ordered it to pay $2.3 million in damages and interest to the partnership, College Health and Investment Ltd. Wells must also pay $419,000 in margin interest and $35,000 in costs. College Health had sought $4.4 million, according to the FINRA panel ruling. “We’re disappointed in the panel’s decision and don’t believe it was warranted by the facts presented during the hearing,” a Wells Fargo spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are looking into next steps,” she said. A 2010 lawsuit filed by College Health against a former secretary, Esther Spero, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sheds light on the Miami-based partnership’s troubles. It said Spero forged names of College Health employees who were authorized to transfer funds from its accounts, but transferred the funds for her personal use. In October, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida, entered a $21 million judgment against Spero, who did not respond to the partnership’s complaint. Spero allegedly operated the scheme through Wells Fargo and other entities, according to the complaint. Spero could not be reached for comment. Wells tried to seek damages from Spero and another College Health employee in the FINRA arbitration case, but the panel ruled it lacked jurisdiction over them because they were not FINRA-licensed securities brokers. (Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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