MIAMI, FL – February 9, 2015 – (HISPANICIZE WIRE) — Nationally recognized securities arbitration law firm Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. (http://www.dkrpa.com) announces breaking news about UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico, a division of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS). A recent Reuters article reveals that the Chairman of UBS Puerto Rico, Miguel Ferrer, berated UBS brokers for failing to sell UBS’s leveraged Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds. Ferrer also apparently demanded that brokers sell the funds in order to generate commissions. According to the Reuters article, in April 2011, two years before the value of the UBS funds plummeted, some UBS Puerto Rico brokers had refused to sell the funds. The brokers are said to have provided UBS with a list of 22 reasons why they were reluctant to sell the funds. In a recording of what purports to be a June 2, 2011 meeting among Ferrer and a group of UBS brokers, Ferrer can be heard yelling at the brokers to sell the funds to customers or “get a new job!” The recording in Spanish can be heard here: http://bit.ly/1EJfAWz.
Investors have lost billions of dollars in the UBS funds, and hundreds of Puerto Rico investors have filed FINRA arbitration claims against UBS Puerto Rico and its U.S. affiliate, UBS Financial Services, Inc., seeking to recover their losses. Investors claim that UBS recommended and sold over-concentrated positions of the risky UBS bond funds and even that UBS loaned money to many investors to buy the risky funds. The recording of Ferrer shouting at the UBS brokers could be powerful evidence in support of investors’ FINRA arbitration claims. “We believe that the Ferrer recording makes clear that UBS aggressively pushed the funds on Puerto Rico investors for the primary purpose of generating commissions and revenue for UBS, rather than because the funds made sense for UBS’s customers,” said Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein attorney Jeffrey Kaplan.
Puerto Rico securities regulators already have fined UBS Puerto Rico millions of dollars relating to the firm’s conduct in selling the funds. We expect FINRA arbitration panels to find UBS’s conduct deplorable, leading to damage awards for Puerto Rico investors who pursue FINRA arbitration claims.
Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. has filed dozens of FINRA arbitration claims on behalf of more than one hundred Puerto Rico investors who lost money in UBS Puerto Rico bond funds. If you lost money in UBS Puerto Rico bond funds, contact us for a free case evaluation at 888-578-6255 or info@dkrpa.com.