Claimants awarded more than $6 million in FINRA arbitration related to transactions in real estate investment trusts.
The claimants filed a FINRA Arbitration in Minneapolis, Minnesota, seeking compensatory damages of $12.5 million related to the recommendation of several allegedly unsuitable transactions in real estate investment trusts and other real estate investments involving Waterway Holdings Group, LLC. The claimants asserted that they had to satisfy outstanding loan amounts on mortgages on the real estate investments to prevent foreclosure. Furthermore, the claimants allege that they were manipulated into undertaking significant debt, paying millions of dollars in cash that could not be recovered, and liquidating, annuitizing and structuring their investment assets earmarked for retirement to pay the debt obligations related to the real estate investment recommendations. After 11 days of hearings, the arbitration panel awarded compensatory damages of more than $6 million.
Case Law Alert, 1st Quarter 2014