Schwab Yield Plus Fraud
SWYSX – SWYPX
Recovery Options Available – Contact Securities Attorneys: (619) 696-5200
Miller & Milove Securities Attorneys successfully represent defrauded Investors. FINRA Arbitration Panel awards Miller & Milove client over $327,000 in the largest Schwab Yield Plus individual Investor award to date.
The San Diego, California investor’s law firm of Miller & Milove is filing claims on behalf of investors in the Schwab YieldPlus Fund, for fraud, misrepresentation and other violations of the law following the receipt of a record arbitration award. Schwab recently announced a settlement of approximately $200 million on behalf of class members which will return a small percentage of your losses. However if you have opted out of the Class Action you are not bound by the proposed settlement and should pursue an individual action. This is particularly true for all California resident investors who possess legal claims in addition to those of nationwide class members.
The financial fraud attorneys at Miller & Milove are reviewing cases for all Investors who have purchased shares of SCHWAB YIELDPLUS and opted out of the class action.
Charles Schwab & Co. is amongst several prominent Wall Street and national Securities firms that advertised its funds as safe alternatives to money market investments without disclosing risks associated with Yield Plus investments in volatile and unpredictable mortgage backed securities and unsuitable long term bonds. In some instances, Charles Schwab representatives contacted and advised account holders to redirect cash proceeds from their most conservative holdings, such as Certificates of Deposit and money market funds, into the significantly more risky Yield Plus Fund. All Yield Plus investors who purchased and held YieldPlus prior to March 2008 were subject to damage and losses due to Schwab’s misrepresentations and mismanagement.
Amongst the misrepresentations and misleading statements used to induce investors, Charles Schwab & Co. made material misrepresentations and failed to disclose material facts associated with the maturity and duration of Yield Plus portfolio holdings as well as the nature and safety of the financial instruments. Remarkably, the President of Charles Schwab Investment Management and an “Interested Trustee” in the Schwab Yield Plus fund, Randy Merk, testified at the FINRA arbitration. Mr. Merk has been a trustee of Yield Plus and other troubled Schwab funds. Mr. Merk confirmed in testimony that Mr. Charles Schwab was also an “Interested Trustee” of Yield Plus during the relevant time period when investors suffered the significant losses. Charles Schwab Investment Management company and the parent corporation, Charles Schwab & Co., were also held jointly and severally liable in the record Award along with the Schwab brokerage unit. Miller & Milove will be representing a group of defrauded Yield Plus investors in another FINRA proceeding set to begin on November 9, 2009.
The Schwab Yield Plus Funds (symbols SWYPX and SWYSX) have lost more than 40% due to the over concentration of unsuitably risky mortgage backed securities and other long term financial instruments that were priced pursuant to “notional” computer generated models – despite representations to investors that the fund was “a safe ULTRA-SHORT TERM bond fund”.
In June 2008 Bloomberg reported that Schwab previously offered respectable settlements to Schwab Yield Plus investors with less than $50,000 in damages, but paltry amounts to investors with losses exceeding $50,000. It is estimated that total investor losses exceed $1 billion.
If you are a Schwab Yield Plus victim, please call us at 619-696-5200.
