Securities Fraud Lawyer Blog
On June 16, 2015 The Arizona Corporation Commission revoked the securities registration of Michael Blake of Paradise Valley and denied his securities salesman and investment adviser representative license applications based upon his one-year disciplinary suspension by FINRA.
As a result of an administrative hearing, the Commission found that Michael Blake’s securities registration was suspended for more than six months by FINRA for conduct known as “selling away,” a practice of selling investments that are not authorized by a registered securities dealer in violation of industry conduct rules. In Michael Blake’s FINRA order accepting the offer of settlement, he neither admitted nor denied that he participated in private securities transactions totaling more than $3.2 million with approximately 28 investors in three investment contracts involving commercial real estate. Additionally, Blake neither admitted nor denied that he misled his employing member firms regarding his involvement in the private securities transactions and that he failed to disclose a separate, related outside business activity.
Michael Blake’s registration and disciplinary history
Michael Blake was registered with the following firms
According to FINRA’s CRD disclosure report, Michael Blake has been the subject of five customer complaints and two regulatory investigations.
The Law Office of David Liebrader practices exclusively in the field of investment loss recovery and our securities attorneys have successfully resolved over 1000 investment loss cases over the past 20 years. Recoveries for clients top $40 million. The types of claims we have successfully handled include those involving unsuitable investments (suitability claims), excessive trading or “churning”, misrepresentations and omissions, unauthorized trading, over-concentration of illiquid or overly risky investments, pump and dump scams involving “penny stocks”, direct participation programs (private placements) involving real estate investment trusts (REITS), oil and gas exploration programs, leasing equipment deals and receivable financing, promissory notes whether sold through a broker dealer or as part of the outside business activities of a registered representative, ponzi scheme losses, failure on the part of the broker dealer to perform due diligence, state securities law (blue sky) violations and failure to supervise.
Investment losses can be recovered through a process known as FINRA arbitration. FINRA regulates broker dealers that sell investments, and provides an arbitration forum to resolve investor disputes. Investors can pursue claims against their brokerage firms in the FINRA arbitration forum. Common claims in the forum are those for suitability, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentations and omissions, negligence, violation of FINRA rules, state and federal securities laws violations, elder abuse, breach of contract and failure to supervise. On average, the recovery process takes approximately a year, from start to finish.
FINRA’s rules require that all investment recommendations made by licensed financial advisors be suitable in light of a customer’s needs, objectives and risk tolerance. In addition, all registered representatives are required to be properly supervised, with periodic inspections and reviews by qualified supervisors, whose job it is to vigorously investigate suspicions of wrongdoing (red flags).
If you have suffered investment losses please call The Law Office of David Liebrader at (702) 380-3131 for a free, confidential consultation