GPB Falsified Financial Documents and Mislead Investors

GPB has had a variety of problems.  It has restated 2015 and 2016 financial statements of certain funds as part of an accounting review.  The firm’s auditor, Crowe LLP, resigned.  The firm is embroiled in litigation with a former employee, Patrick Dibre, who alleges that GPB purposely falsified financial statements and falsely reported to investors that they own certain dealerships.

In addition, Massachusetts announced that it is investigating some 63 broker-dealer firms selling private placements from GPB.  GPB is also named in a class-action lawsuit brought by aggrieved investors.

Recover Investment Losses From GPB Holdings & Automotive

If you were sold investments in GPB Holdings or GPB Automotive, you should consult with an investment fraud lawyer with experience in representing defrauded investors. Call The Doss Firm, LLC toll-free at (855) 534-4581 for a free consultation.

Additionally, up to 17 percent of the U.S. adult population falls prey to some form of investment scam in any given year.

A significant part of financial success involves risk-taking. Therefore, when one is presented with a proposition that is lucrative yet does not seem like the stereotypical scam, they are more than likely to consider it.

While some deals are legitimate, some are frauds, unfortunately. Do you think you could be the victim of investment fraud?

This article will lay bare the most common warning signs and what to do if you’re a victim.

1. You Were Dealing With a Random Company

If the company you decided to invest in contacted you out of the blue to give you their proposition; that should have been the first give away of a potential scam.

Any time a random company contacts you – whether online, via the phone, or face to face -, always go online to check their authenticity.

2. You Have Been Rejected for Credit

If you typically have good credit, then you start getting rejected out of the blue, chances are your identity is being assumed and they are using it to finance their nefarious needs.

Part of involvement in any type of investment often involves giving the company your financial information. While this information is very personal, a legitimate company cannot steal from you since they have a lot to lose if you sue.

This is why fraudsters pose like legitimate business people. With that information, they can do just about anything. If you notice strange patterns in your credit file, chances are you are a victim of fraud.

3. You Are Being Rushed

A legitimate company will never rush you into making a decision, hand over personal information, or give you an unreasonable deadline within which you should fork out your money.

Fraudsters usually instill a sense of urgency to their deals so that you do not have the time to think it through.

If that happened to you, and you obliged, there is a good possibility you were dealing with scammers.

4. Your Bank Asked You for Personal Information

Banks will never call you to ask for your PIN or passwords. Thus, if you received a call from a person claiming to be from your bank asking for such information, they were fraudsters.

5. Bad Grammar in Email or Letter

If the letter or email that the individuals contacted you with had a significant amount of spelling and grammatical errors, it should have raised your suspicions.

Any legitimate company invests in professional writing services to ensure that their emails and letters are well-written and proofread.

A fraudster, on the other hand, might not be that thorough. Additionally, they might not be from within the country, thus English might not be their first language.

6. Websites Lacking Secure Links

Scammers go out of their way to pose as legitimate companies. As such, they might have professional-looking websites, complete with official logos. This could easily be duplicate home pages of actual companies.

To establish whether a website is legitimate, check to see if it has a secure link. This is usually symbolized by a padlock on the browser.

If the site you were directed to wasn’t secure, you were likely dealing with fraudsters.

What to If You Are a Victim of Investment Fraud

If you have fallen prey to investment fraud, you will need to contact a number of bodies to get help. These include:

Law Enforcement

Fraud is a criminal act. As such, you need to immediately notify law enforcement upon realizing you have been conned. This will allow you to get a police report, which could possibly help you to get your money back.

Additionally, it allows law enforcement to begin their investigations while the case is still fresh.

Your Financial Institutions

If you provided the rogue investing expert with your bank information, you need to contact the bank or any other relevant financial institution immediately. This will prevent the fraudster from accessing your funds.

The bank will work with you to determine the best course of action. This could involve stopping any payments, rescinding a wire transfer, as well as getting you a new account number.

Credit Bureaus

If the individuals were able to get your personal identifying information (date of birth, social security number, etc.), you will have to contact the credit bureaus and place a fraud alert on your credit reports.

This reduces the risk of the fraudster using your information to obtain new lines of credit.

Social Security Administration

If they have your social security number, contact the SSA by calling 1-800-772-1213. This will prevent you from being linked to any activities that the fraudster might use with your number.

The Business or Agency

If the individual used the identity of a legitimate business or government agency, ensure that you contact those entities as well.

These organizations are usually the last to find out that their names and reputations are being used to scam people.

Nonetheless, there is little the organization can do to help your case if it is determined that the scammer used a proxy site.

However, notifying them will allow them to help others from falling prey to the scam by posting a warning on their website.

An Investment Fraud Lawyer

If you were connived into believing that your investment would yield certain returns, then it fell through, you should consider getting a lawyer. You should never be lied to about the reality of an investment.

An attorney will help prove that you were conned so that you get the justice you deserve.

Getting Justice

Getting scammed by anonymous people on the internet is arguably understandable.

However, getting scammed by a financial advisor is something that one does not expect. This happens a lot; 492 advisors were barred from operating in 2017, and another 733 were suspended.

In case you have incurred losses due to investment fraud resulting from the actions of an advisor or broker, you have the right to sue.

The Doss Firm has a track record of helping fraud victims recover their losses. With over 45 years of combined experience, our lawyers will work with you to help you get the justice you deserve. Contact us today to learn more.

MIAMI June 12, 2019 — As health insurance fraud penetrates America’s healthcare industry to target vulnerable consumers, Miami-based law firm Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman (LKLSG) and Atlanta-based The Doss Firm filed a class action complaint against Health Insurance Innovations (HIIQ), Inc. and Health Plan Intermediaries Holdings, LLC (HPIH) for their role in the Simple Health Plans fraudulent insurance scheme.

The lawsuit alleges HIIQ and HPIH directed, aided and abetted the $150 million fraud perpetrated by Simple Health Plans, a South Florida company that was shut down in October 2018 by the Federal Trade Commission. The lawsuit alleges that HIIQ took part in defrauding hundreds of thousands of vulnerable consumers nationwide, leading them to believe that their limited benefit indemnity plans and medical discount plans were major medical insurance that met the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

“The scheme carried out by HIIQ and HPIH through Simple Health Plans created devastating consequences for victims nationwide,” said Jason Kellogg, Partner at LKLSG. “These folks thought they were doing the right thing in purchasing health insurance. Instead, they were left mostly uninsured.”

Co-Lead Plaintiff Chris Mitchell of Kansas was left with bills exceeding $40,000 after having surgery to treat an aggressive form of cancer.  Co-Lead Plaintiff Elizabeth Belin of Ohio was billed more than $48,000 in medical expenses because her limited benefit indemnity plan, which she was told was a PPO, did not cover the surgery.

Simple Health was one of the largest brokers for HIIQ, a publicly traded distributor of health insurance and supplemental plans that financed, sold plans through, acted as the third-party administrator for, and provided customer service for Simple Health.

The Federal Trade Commission warned that thousands of potentially unaware victims continue to be charged by HIIQ for plans purchased through Simple Health.

“This scheme victimized the most vulnerable patients across the country,” said attorney Jason Doss, owner of the Doss Law Firm. “The plaintiffs are the consumers that the Affordable Care Act was designed to protect.”

For more information, you can call (855) 534-4581

Complaint below:Belin Complaint

For a full copy of the amended complaint, see here.

Key Exhibit to amended complaint can be found here.

Audio Link: Doss Firm Discuss Anthem Lawsuit

Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this news event sponsored by the Doss law firm. You’ll be hearing from four speakers today. Before we introduced them individually, I want to bring the operator on to explain how the Q and A period will work in the latter portion of the call.

Speaker 2: Thank you ma’am. During the question and answer session, you may ask a question by pressing star, then one on your touch tone phone. If any time a question has been addressed and you’d like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We please ask that you limit yourself to one question at a single follow up. If you need to ask an additional question, please know that you may press star then one to rejoin the queue. Thank you.

Speaker 1: We will repeat those instructions about how members as a news media can pose questions at the start of the Q and A period. As I mentioned, you will be hearing from four speakers today. First will be Jason Doss, attorney from the Doss Firm LLC. Second, Joy Doss, attorney also from the Doss Firm LLC. Francis Kirby is third of Marietta area woman. And then fourth is John David Marks, an Atlanta area man. Let’s begin with our first speaker attorney Jason Doss.

Jason Doss: Good afternoon. My name is Jason Doss. I’m an attorney with the Doss Firm LLC in the Atlanta area. I want to thank you for joining us today. I will be making brief introductory remarks, and then take your questions later during the Q and A period. Today our firm filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Kirby and Mr. Marks as well as thousands of Georgia healthcare consumers who were misled by deceptive marketing scheme perpetrated by Anthem Blue Cross. Specifically, thousands of Georgia consumers were misled during the 2018 open enrollment period by misrepresentations and omissions from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia. When these consumers were told at the time of enrollment that they would continue to have access to the doctors and specialists of Georgia’s largest healthcare provider Wellstar Health System Inc., as an in-network provider. As stated in the complaint, Wellstar informed the public that, in fact, Blue Cross had terminated their relationship in August of 2018, which was several months before the open enrollment period began. And yet Blue Cross continued to advertise that Wellstar was an in-network provider.

Some of you may have seen a recent news release by Anthem. I think was issued yesterday. I want to be clear that our lawsuit is proceeding, since the 90 day extension announced in the last 24 hours by Anthem is at best a limited and bandaid non-solution, that only extends the uncertainty, shifts the burden onto the patients and consumers yet again, and the suffering of the soon to be former Wellstar patients. The lawsuit was filed in the United States district court for the northern district of Georgia, Atlanta Division, on behalf of plaintiffs Francis Kirby and John David Marks, which in the complaint reads in part as follows. Quote “during the most recent open enrollment period which was from November one, 2018 to December 15, 2018, Anthem made uniform misrepresentations and omissions to consumers despite the fact that Anthem informed Wellstar in August of 2018, that it would not be including Wellstar as an in-network provider for individual health plans known as the Pathway plans, during the 2019 coverage period.”

The lawsuit continues, quote “Anthem never informed consumers of this fact and engaged in a deceptive marketing scheme to continue to list Wellstar providers in-network during the open enrollment period. Anthem continued to use its marketing material disseminated to their agents, as well as on its website, falsely representing that Wellstar physicians and facilities would be in network providers for Anthem’s Pathway health insurance plan.

There is some context of interest here. Anthem Blue Cross has faced similar litigation in the past. Class action lawsuits were filed in California a few years ago based on a similar deceptive marketing scheme, in which the company overstated their network in their marketing materials, and when people signed up, they had far less than what they were promised. That lawsuit, my understanding is it settled for approximately $23,000,000, and that Anthem agreed to make business changes going forward to prevent future problems in California.

So what does all this mean? The facts here are clear. Anthem concealed the truth from Georgia health consumers for the purpose of inducing them to select them at their health insurance company. What this boils down to is Anthem was basically perpetrating a bait and switch on their consumers based on false advertising. You can’t tell someone that their regular doctors and specialists will be available when you know before your open enrollment advertising campaign begins, that you had no intention of honoring your promise. That is what Anthem did here, and that concludes my opening statement. I look forward to taking your questions shortly.

Speaker 1: Great. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that was Jason Doss. Let’s precede to our second speaker, attorney, Joy Doss.

Joy Doss: Good afternoon. My name Joy Doss, also an attorney with the Doss law firm here in the Atlanta area. I too will be making brief introductory remarks, and then be available for your questions later during the Q and A period. It’s important for people to understand just how bad of a situation this is. Wellstar is the largest healthcare provider in Georgia and virtually the exclusive health care provider in Northwest Metro Atlanta. In 44 counties in this state, Wellstar is the sole healthcare provider. By falsely holding out the lure of Wellstar of doctors and specialists and then yanking that away, Anthem was able to lure customers into its net, and then severely disadvantaged them after the fact.

Now that the open enrollment period is closed and these consumers are locked in to a new health insurance contract, Anthem pulled the rug out from under them, and is now no longer including Wellstar as an in network provider. These misled consumers are now expected to continue paying Anthem’s premiums for a health insurance product they would not have purchased had they known the truth. And if plaintiffs want to continue using their existing Wellstar doctors, they will have to pay the full price for medical treatment, as if they did not have any health insurance at all. It’s important to keep in mind that we’re talking about real people here who have been harmed. I want to say a few words to introduce our healthcare consumers speakers today. Ms. Francis Kirby has significant health issues and requires nine specialists. She will be forced to replace the majority of her specialists as most are Wellstar providers, as well as her primary care physician from whom she has had treatment for approximately 20 years.

John David Marks has had significant health problems since 2004, and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016. He will no longer be able to see the same Wellstar physicians and specialists for treatments. These are just two of the thousands of Georgia healthcare consumers harmed by Anthem. These victims are the reason that we went to court today. Anthem is an enormous healthcare company with vast legal resources available to them. They cannot be allowed to just trod all over people like Ms. Kirby and Mr. Marks. We are very proud at the Doss firm to be able to represent them. That concludes my opening statement and I look forward to taking your questions.

Speaker 1: Okay. Again, that was attorney Joy Doss. Let’s go to our third speaker, Francis Kirby, a Marietta area woman.

Francis Kirby: Hello, this is Mrs. Kirby. I received no notification of this change from Anthem and had to read about it in a news release. Because my longterm primary care physician and several of my specialists are Wellstar providers, I will now be forced to search for a new primary care physician, and several new medical specialists. This will assuredly cause a lapse in my medical treatment. I must find several new doctors with whom I am comfortable, and who are accepting new patients. I’ve had to be hospitalized several times over the years. And now where am I gonna go? Wellstar operates the only hospitals available to me currently in Cobb county.

Speaker 1: That was Francis Kirby. And now we’ll proceed to our fourth and final speaker, John David Marks, an Atlanta area man.

John David Mark: Hello this is Mr. Marks. I had an appointment set for today with my Wellstar urologist, and had to cancel due to a lack of coverage. All my specialists are with Wellstar, and Anthem has cut them all off, after I was assured they would be available to me. What I’m left with is far from satisfactory. Nearly all the specialists where I live are Wellstar specialist. In addition, the closest hospital that Anthem will let me use is in midtown Atlanta, over 25 miles from my home. And that is extremely concerning given that I have heart problems, and could otherwise go to Wellstar facility, just five minutes away.

Speaker 1: All right, and again that was John David Marks. That takes us to the Q and A portion of the call. I want to emphasize that the Q and A period is for reporters only, and I want to bring the operator back on the line to explain once again how members of the media may ask a question.

Speaker 2: Yes, ma’am. At this time, if you will like to ask a question, please press star then one on your touch tone phone. If any time a question may have been addressed and you’d like to move yourself from the queue, you may press star then two. Again we please ask you limit yourself to one question and a single followup. If you need to ask additional questions, please know again that you may press star then one to rejoin the queue.

Speaker 1: While we are waiting for our first question, I want to make sure you know that if you wish to connect with any of the speakers you’re hearing following this call, you may contact Whitney Dunlap at 703-229-1489. Okay Operator, let’s start with our first question.

Speaker 2: Yes ma’am. That question will come from Ariel Heart with the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Ariel Heart: Hi, can you hear me?

John David Mark: Yes.

Jason Doss: Yes.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Ariel Heart: Okay, great. Do you all have any idea how many patients are affected by this?

Jason Doss: So this is Jason Doss. The news reports as you will know, reported that there were thousands of consumers who were impacted. This is a statewide class, so it includes people even outside of Metro Atlanta. Also I have spoken with several brokers who were selling individual insurance, and they’ve reported to me that they’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people that have complained to them since this news broke. So I suspect the answer is that there’s thousands of consumers who are negatively impacted.

Joy Doss: But we don’t know for sure.

Jason Doss: Not yet.

Ariel Heart: Okay, thanks.

Speaker 1: Okay is there another question operator?

Speaker 2: Yes ma’am. The next question we have will come from Rickie la Rue, with the Marietta Daily Journal.

Rickie: Hi, can you guys hear me?

Speaker 1: Yes.

Jason Doss: Yes.

John David Mark: Yes.

Rickie: What is your ultimate goal with this class action lawsuit? What are you hoping to accomplish?

Jason Doss: This is Jason Doss. We’re hoping to accomplish two things. Number one, we’re seeking to recover any damages that were caused by Anthem’s deceptive practices. Those damages are going to end up being quantified through an expert witness, but they will include but are not limited to any out of pocket expenses that were incurred. And then separately also the harm caused in terms of a lack of access to the healthcare provider that they signed up for.

The third thing that we would be seeking would be business practice changes, to ensure that this never happens again. It’s my understanding that there is a dispute between Anthem in Wellstar that’s the cause of this. The dispute though, sounds like it was going on well before the open enrollment period. And so it just logically follows the Anthem knew at the time that it entered the open enrollment period, that they didn’t have a deal with Wellstar. And yet they represented to these consumers that they did. So I hope that answers your question.

Rickie: Uh, yeah. One followup would be the lawsuit mentioned that the damages could be higher than $5 million. Is that just a threshold, a legal threshold that you have to state in the filing? Or do you have an estimate of what you guys are looking for in terms of damages?

Jason Doss: Well, the estimate is that it’s more than $5,000,000. That is a jurisdictional amount as well, but we believe it’s well in excess of $5,000,000.

Rickie: Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1: All right operator. Let’s go to our next question.

Speaker 2: Yes. That will come from Chris Mar, with the Bloomberg Law.

Chris Mar: Hi. This is Chris. I want to see if you could clarify for me … I see that Wellstar is unavailable under Anthem’s Pathway health plan. I’m not sure–is that one of many plans that Anthem offers in the state? Or is that sort of the only one or the primary one?

Jason Doss: Joy, do you want to handle this one?

Joy Doss: Yes. Joy Doss again. The Pathways plan is a plan that’s purchased by individuals and families under the Affordable Care Act, so these are not individuals that are covered by their employer. They’re individuals who have gone to either the private market and purchase what Blue Cross would call their online Pathway of plans, but it’s all under Pathways. Or they went to the government marketplace website and purchased insurance through there. Does that answer your question?

Chris Mar: Well part of it, but I guess the other part of that is, okay, I understand that this was purchased by individuals. It’s not employer sponsored coverage. But is this the only Anthem plan that’s available when you-

Joy Doss: Yes.

Chris Mar: Yep.

Joy Doss: In that situation, outside of the group plans? Yes. It’s the only plan available. Now there’s different layers of plans, whether it be silver, bronze, gold, depending on whether you purchase it through the marketplace or privately. But, and that just affects your deductible. But in Georgia it is the Pathways plan. Yes.

Chris Mar: Alright okay

Speaker 1: Before our next question, I’d like to invite the operator on the line again, just to remind members of the media how they can ask a question. Operator?

Speaker 2: Again if you’d like to ask a question, please press star then one on your touch tone phone. To remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star then two. Again, it is star then one to ask a question.

Speaker 1: All right, operator, let’s go to our next question.

Speaker 2: Yes ma’am. That question is a followup from Ariel Heart, Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Ariel Heart: Hi. What are your chances of getting certified as a class? I think you mentioned a suit in California. Did they end up getting certified in the class? And would there be different hoops to get through in Georgia?

Jason Doss: So this is a classic consumer fraud case, and I believe it has a very good chance of getting certified as a class. The reason that I think that is that the information in the marketing materials that Anthem disseminated to the public were uniform. So they had on their website, a ‘Find your physician” function which they encourage people to go onto before they enrolled, which listed the doctors and providers uniformly to people and made a uniform misrepresentation about that.

The other things that they misrepresented were also to the agencies, independent agents that were selling these policies to consumers, because those people also had marketing materials that were provided to them that were uniform. I’ve started gathering some of them already, and they’re going to be used as evidence in our case, of information provided by Anthem to the agents during the open enrollment period, saying that the Wellstar hospitals and providers showing which ones were and weren’t … Whether they were in the network, and they were. So, I think uniformity, the uniform misrep nature of this scheme makes it more likely, the common questions and facts are going to predominate over individual questions. And so the second thing, reason that I think that way is that there’s also a uniform omission. They didn’t disclose to anybody at the time of enrollment that they in fact … They had already previously terminated their relationship with Wellstar. So had that been disclosed, people wouldn’t have purchased the product.

So those are the types of facts that you look at in evaluating class case. And we believe we have a very good chance of getting certified.

Ariel Heart: Thank you. That’s helpful. And I did want to ask about what you just said. So I had spoken to some DOI officials before the February fourth date rolled around, and they said that they were looking into my question about this termination. I guess they didn’t know about it before then. And they found … I don’t know if you’d call it an announcement. But they found some kind of communication from Anthem to its customers within the portion of the website that allowed for customers to look for their providers. But I don’t know what they saw, but it was divorced from the actual list.

So my question to you is, did that communication exists as far as you know? Are you saying that that was not even there before January first of 2019?

Jason Doss: Let me have my clients answer that question. I think they’re in the best position to tell you what was supposed to [crosstalk 00:20:36]

Ariel Heart: Oh, I would enjoy hearing from them. So basically you don’t, aside from whatever your clients have told you, do you have knowledge one way or the other of what existed on website at that time?

Jason Doss: The answer is yes, I do know what was on Anthem’s website at the time, and listed the providers for Wellstar has covered. There was no asterisk or something that I saw that said otherwise. If there was, it wasn’t adequate obviously. And it didn’t contradict. So I hope that answers your question.

Ariel Heart: It does, and obviously we’re not in discovery yet, so okay, thank you.

Speaker 1: Okay. I believe that that was all the questions we had on the line today. I want to make sure that you know where to get more information about today’s news conference. To connect with any of the speakers you have heard from today and get more information, you can contact Whitney Dunlap at 703-229-1489. A streaming audio replay of this news event will be available online as of four PM at Dossfirm.com, or https://dossfirm.com/. The URL is linked on the news release, which should be in everyone’s inboxes by now. But if you haven’t received it, please contact Whitney Dunlap. Thank you for joining this news events sponsored by the Doss law firm. And that concludes today’s event.

ATLANTA, GA.//February 5, 2019///Thousands of Georgia consumers were misled during the 2018 open enrollment period by “misrepresentations and omissions” from Anthem, Inc./Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Inc. (Anthem) when they were told they would continue to have access to the doctors and specialists of Georgia’s largest health care provider, WellStar Health System Inc. (WellStar), as an in-network provider, according to a class action lawsuit filed today by the Doss Law Firm.

Attorney Jason Doss said that the lawsuit is proceeding since the 90-day extension announced in the last 24 hours by Anthem is “at best a limited and temporary Band-Aid non-solution that only extends the uncertainty and suffering” of the soon-to-be-former WellStar patients.  The lawsuit is available online at http://bit.ly/anthemlawsuit.

The lawsuit in United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division on behalf of plaintiffs Frances Kirby and John David Marks reads in part as follows:  “… [D]uring the most recent open enrollment period, which was from November 1, 2018 to December 15, 2018, Anthem made uniform misrepresentations and omissions to consumers …Despite the fact that Anthem informed WellStar in August 2018 that it would not be including WellStar as an in-network provider for its individual health plans during the 2019 coverage period … Anthem never informed consumers of this fact and engaged in a deceptive marketing scheme to continue to list WellStar providers as in-network during the open enrollment period…  Anthem continued to use its marketing materials disseminated to their agents as well as on its website falsely representing that WellStar physicians and facilities would be in-network providers for Anthem’s Pathway health insurance plan.”

Anthem has faced similar litigation the past. Class action lawsuits filed in California based on a similar deceptive marketing scheme as outlined in today’s lawsuit settled for approximately $23 million, and Anthem agreed to make business changes going forward to prevent future problems in California.

Attorney Jason Doss said: “The facts here are clear:  Anthem concealed the truth from Georgia health consumers for the purposes of inducing them to select Anthem as their health insurance provider. What this boils down to is Anthem defrauded customers based on false advertising.  You can’t tell someone that their regular doctors and specialists will be available when you know before your open-enrollment campaign begins that you have no intention of honoring your promise. That is what Anthem did here.”

Attorney Joy Doss said: “Now that the open enrollment period is closed and these consumers are locked in to a new insurance company. Anthem pulled the rug out from under them and is now no longer including WellStar as an in-network provider. These misled consumers are now expected to continue paying Anthem’s premiums for a health insurance product that they would not have purchased had they known the truth.  If the plaintiffs want to continue using their existing WellStar doctors, they will have to pay the full price for medical treatment, as if they did not have any health insurance at all.”

WellStar is the largest health care provider in Georgia and virtually the exclusive health care provider in northwest metro-Atlanta.  In 44 counties in the state, Anthem is the sole insurance provider.

Frances Kirby has significant health issues requiring nine specialists.  She will be forced to replace the majority of her WellStar specialists as well as her primary care physician from whom she has had treatment for 20 years.

Mrs. Kirby stated: “I received no notification of this change from Anthem and had to read about in a news release.  Because my long-term primary care physician and several of my specialists are WellStar providers, I will now be forced to search for a new primary care physician and several new medical specialists. This will assuredly cause a lapse in my medical treatment.  I must find several new doctors with whom I am comfortable and who are accepting patients. I have had to be hospitalized before and now where am I to go? WellStar operates the only hospital available to me currently in Cobb County.”

John David Marks has had significant heart problems since 2004 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016. He will no longer be able to see the same WellStar physicians and specialists for treatment.

Mr. Marks said: “I had an appointment set for today with my WellStar urologist and that was cancelled, due to lack of coverage.  All my specialists are with WellStar and Anthem has cut them all off after I was assured they would be available to me.  What I am left with is far from satisfactory. Nearly all the specialists where I live are WellStar specialists. In addition, the closest hospital that Anthem will let me use is in mid-town Atlanta, over 25 miles from my home. And that is extremely concerning given that I have heart problems and could otherwise go to a WellStar facility just five minutes away.”

The Doss Firm, LLC, is an Atlanta-based law firm devoted to representing consumers across the country in a variety of matters, including financial fraud litigation, securities arbitration, business and commercial litigation, employment disputes, and class action litigation. If you have been the victim of a similar scheme or financial fraud, please reach out to us to discuss your options at https://dossfirm.com/ or by phone (770) 578-1314.

On January 19, 2019, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article entitled, Blow for ACA patients: Anthem/Blue Cross individuals lose Wellstar, and reported that the largest healthcare system in Georgia, Wellstar, is in a dispute with Anthem, the state’s largest healthcare insurance provider. The details of the dispute are not known but if Wellstar and Athem cannot come to an agreement by February 4, 2018, thousands of individuals in Cobb County will forced to either avoid the Wellstar providers that “dominate northwest metro Atlanta or pay colossal out-of-network costs.”

Wellstar is the primary healthcare provider in Cobb County with nearly a dozen hospitals, three health parks, 10 urgent care clinics and untold number of doctors. Just last year, Anthem declared that it was not available to individuals in the metro Atlanta area, including Cobb County.  As a result, individuals and small business owners who were customers of the Anthem/Blue Cross were forced to find new healthcare insurance.  This year, during the open enrollment period, Anthem reversed course and announced that it was offering health insurance to those individuals and small business owners and thousands of new and former customers switched to Anthem. They are now locked in with Anthem for the next year.

Joy Doss, a Marietta attorney states, “Most families choose their health insurance based on whether their family doctors and pediatricians will accept that company’s insurance.  We are small business owners and last year, we were forced to switch to Ambetter because Anthem/Blue Cross left the market.  This year, I did my due diligence in my search for family health insurance. Anthem held itself out as available again and information from both Anthem and Wellstar confirmed that Wellstar accepted the Anthem plan we chose. Therefore, we switched back. We rely solely on Wellstar hospitals and doctors to care for our family. In fact, my children go to the same pediatric practice, Wellstar Kenmar Pediatrics, that I went to from birth over 40 years ago. We love Wellstar, and the sad fact is it really is the best and obviously the only choice in this area. We absolutely would not have switched to Anthem had we known that they were going to reverse course again and pull the rug out from underneath us. If we are locked in for a year, Anthem should be locked in as well.”

Thousands of individuals and small business owners in Cobb County, Georgia will be negatively impacted if a deal between Anthem and Wellstar can’t be worked out by February 4.  It appears that Anthem accepted new patients during the most recent open enrollment period knowing that it had not agreed to allow the new customers to use Wellstar as an available provider. Equally disturbing is that Anthem and Wellstar failed to disclose this important fact to customers in northwest metro Atlanta and now thousands of individuals will be contractually obligated to pay Anthem thousands of dollars per month over the next year for services that they didn’t bargain for.

Jason Doss also a local attorney states, “Anthem’s misconduct could give rise to class action lawsuits for among other things, deceptive business practices.  If you recently enrolled with Anthem during the last open enrollment period, we want to hear from you.”

The Doss Firm represents consumers in class action and individual lawsuits. If you believe that you are a victim, please call us at (770) 578-1314.

While “volatility-linked ETPs are generally short-term trading products that degrade significantly over time and should not be used as part of a long-term buy-and-hold investment strategy,” some Wells Fargo representatives believed that “the products could be used as a long-term hedge on their customers’ equity positions in the event of a market downturn.” In summary, FINRA found that Wells Fargo failed to institute a reasonable system to supervise solicited sales of volatility-linked ETPs.

FINRA makes it clear that “volatility-linked ETPs” are complex products that could be misunderstood and improperly sold by registered representatives,” and has issued Regulatory Notice 17-32 to member firms reminding that heightened supervision is required regarding these products. Susan Schroeder, Executive Vice President of FINRA’s Department of Enforcement stated that member firms “soliciting sales of volatility ETPs should already be well aware of the unique risks that they pose” and explained that “FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 17-32 is intended to further educate the industry so that member firms can assess their own practices and take appropriate remedial action if necessary.”

Wells Fargo accepted the findings of FINRA while neither admitting nor denying the charges.

Most investors seek out brokerage firms because they don’t have the requisite knowledge about investing and investment products and want confidence in how their money is invested. However, it is clear that not all registered representatives have adequate knowledge of the products that they recommend to their clients. If you are concerned about your investments and have suffered losses, please contact The Doss Firm, LLC at (855) 534-4581 for a free consultation to determine if you may have a legal remedy to recover your losses. Please visit our website at www.dossfirm.com for more information about our firm.

As outlined by FINRA, a “UIT is an investment company that offers units in a portfolio of securities that terminates on a specific maturity date, often after 15 or 24 months. UITs impose a variety of charges, including a deferred sales charge and a creation and development fee, that can total approximately 3.95 percent for a typical 24-month UIT. A registered representative who repeatedly recommends that a customer sell his or her UIT position before the maturity date and then “rolls over” those funds into a new UIT causes the customer to incur increased sale charges over time, raising suitability concerns.”

It was discovered by FINRA, that hundreds of representatives for Morgan Stanley “executed short-term UIT rollovers, including UITs rolled over more than 100 days before maturity, in thousands of customer accounts” during a period from January 2012 to June 2015. FINRA found that representatives’ sales were not adequately supervised, and that Morgan Stanley did not provide sufficient guidance to Morgan Stanley supervisors on how to review UIT transactions to discover unsuitable short-term trading. Furthermore, FINRA determined that Morgan Stanley did not have adequate training regarding UITs or a supervisory system in place to detect short-term UIT rollovers.

Susan Schroeder, FINRA Executive Vice President and Head of Enforcement, explains that “Due to the long-term nature of UITs, their structure, and upfront costs, short-term trading of UITs may be improper and raises suitability concerns. Firms must adequately supervise representatives’ sales of UITs –including providing sufficient training –and have in place a system to detect potentially unsuitable short-term UIT rollovers.”

Are your investments suitable for your financial goals and risk tolerance? Have you suffered losses that you did not anticipate and feel as though your broker did not adequately explain the risks associated with your investments? Contact The Doss Firm, LLC at (855) 534-4581 for a free consultation to discuss your legal rights.

During their investigation, FINRA discovered that over a period of 8 years J.P. Morgan had failed to timely fingerprint 2,000 of its non-registered associated persons which prevented them from discovering whether such persons would be disqualified from employment with the firm. Furthermore, it was learned that the firm was limiting its screening of non-registered associated persons to convictions relating to federal banking laws and other crimes on a list J.P. Morgan created internally. Again, pursuant to federal law, however, J.P. Morgan was supposed to have screened for all felony convictions and for disciplinary actions taken by financial regulators. Unfortunately, in total, J.P. Morgan failed to appropriately screen approximately 8,600 non-registered persons in the appropriate manner.

J.P. Morgan neither admitted nor denied the FINRA allegations, but did consent to the entry of the findings by FINRA.

Before making any decisions to retain a brokerage firm or FINRA-registered broker, investors should conduct a search using FINRA’s BrokerCheck. There is no charge to use this service and it can be invaluable in learning about the disciplinary history, or lack of, for the broker or firm.

If you have suffered investment losses, you may want to consider whether the losses were as a result of wrongful conduct perpetrated by the firm or broker. Our firm is willing to provide you with a free consultation to discuss your investment losses and potential for recovery. Please visit our website www.dossfirm.com for more information or contact us directly at (855) 534-4581.

This is not Kelter’s first offense.  His FINRA BrokerCheck Report (CRD # 2787858) discloses two other customer disputes, including one in which the victim was awarded $346,800.00 in a FINRA arbitration case for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, unsuitability and misrepresentation by Kelter while he was registered with a broker-dealer named Securities Service Network, Inc. It seems likely that there are even more victims.

Kelter has not been registered with a broker-dealer since September 2013.  His registration history is as follows:

04/2007 – 09/2013      Berthel, Fisher & Company Financial Services, Inc. in Johns Creek, GA

01/2005 – 04/2007      VSR Financial Services, Inc. in West Palm Beach, FL

09/1996 – 02/2005      Securities Service Network, Inc. in Knoxville, TN.

Kelter has also done business through various other firms including:

Rare Coins of New Hampshire (Alpharetta, GA)

TMS World (Lake Worth, FL)

Jay Kelter (Alpharetta, GA)

Kelter & Co. LLC (Alpharetta, GA)

Kelter & Company, LLC (West Palm Beach, FL)

BEK Consulting, LLC (N Palm Beach, FL).

If you have lost money with Jay Costa Kelter, we may be able to help and would like to speak with you.  Call The Doss Firm, LLC, (770) 578-1314 for a free consultation.

Between May 2005 and August 2016, according to the article, Cody mismanaged the retirement savings of three victims, falsely assuring the victims that their retirement savings were secure, when he knew they were not.  By 2014 the retirement savings of two of the victims had vanished. Cody reportedly concealed the facts by sending the victims fraudulent account statements and tax documents.  In 2013, regulators had suspended Cody from acting as investment advisor, but he failed to disclose that fact to the victims.

Cases like this one often involve just the tip of the iceberg, and one would expect that there are more than three victims of Roger G. Cody.  The brokerage firms that were associated with Cody owed their investor customers a legal duty to supervise Cody and warn them of all the important facts that they learned about Cody.  Cody worked for the following firms over the years:

IFS Securities (2016)

Concorde Investment Services, LLC (2014-2016)

Westminster Financial Securities, Inc. (2010-2013)

Gunnallen Financial, Inc. (2005-2010)

Leerink Swann & Company (2001-2005)

Salomon Smith Barney, Inc. (2000-2001)

Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc. (1997-2000).

If you have had any experience with Richard G. Cody, we would like to speak with you about it.  Contact The Doss Firm, LLC at (770) 578-1314.

Having seen the devastation up close for many years, Mr. Doss wanted to help alleviate as much of it as possible.  “Wouldn’t it be a good if we could help investors before they became victims,” he said.

Mr. Doss helped create the PIABA Foundation and has led the organization as its President to fulfill its mission of educating and protecting investors.  Mr. Doss and the PIABA Foundation then collaborated with the Alliance for Investor Education (AIE) in producing a National Investor Town Hall Meeting on October 29 in San Diego that SAC blogged about.  Mr. Doss also co-authored a book entitled “The Investors Guide to Protecting Your Financial Future,” and a short documentary entitled “Trust Me.”  The video uses the inability of government to prevent repeated financial collapses as a starting point for learning how investment fraudsters operate and what investors can do to protect themselves.  The video features the accounts of two actual investment fraud victims and commentary by several investor attorneys.

The Town Hall, book and video were a great success from all accounts.  The promotional video marketing the event received 75,000 views on social media.  Said SAC, “We’ve heard of AIE before.  It may become a force in the field of investor education, if this Town Hall concept catches interest.”  That is the Plan!

RCNs are complex securities.  In addition to the risk of default by the issuer, RCNs contain embedded put options giving the issuer the right to not return the investor’s principal at maturity, but instead assign the underlying security (usually a stock) at maturity if the stock price drops to a certain level.  In that case, the investor is left holding a stock that may be worth much less than the price paid for the RCN.

RCNs are alternative investments that typically offer above-market yields.  They are often sold to income-oriented investors who are unable to realize a sufficient return in the persistent low interest rate environment in which we live.  However, most individual investors who purchase RCNs have no idea they can lose money on this investment.

According to the SEC, UBS sold approximately $548 million in RCNs to more than 8,700 relatively inexperienced retail customers.

Investors who have lost money in RCNs should consult with an attorney with experience in representing investors in securities arbitration.  The Doss Firm, LLC has such experience and offers a free initial consultation to investors who may have questions about any of their investments.

If you were a victim of this alleged fraudulent scheme, we would be interested in discussing representing your interests with the hope and expectation of recovering some or all of your losses.  We will evaluate your case at no charge.

As background, Mr. Sanders’ CRD reveals over 30 customer complaints for the same type of account mismanagement.  On December 26, 2014, Triad Advisors, Inc. terminated and discharged Mr. Sanders for “mismanagement of RIA related accounts” involving options trading.  (“RIA” means “registered investment advisor.”)

Many of Mr. Sanders’ clients were elderly and retired income-oriented investors.  They have suffered substantial losses.  They entrusted their hard earned retirement savings to Mr. Sanders, who, acting with discretionary trading authority, mismanaged their accounts.  Mr. Sanders breached his fiduciary duty by using a “one size fits all” investment strategy with all of his clients without regard to whether it was prudent or suitable.

Leavitt Sanders of West Point, Georgia, is a former licensed stockbroker and investment adviser who operated in Georgia and Alabama.  Mr. Sanders is no longer in the industry for mismanaging the brokerage accounts of numerous clients by excessive trading in high risk investments, including put and call options, and day-trading huge stock positions on margin.  The options and stocks (or stock indices) included Priceline.com, Amazon, the S&P500 Index, NASDAQ-100 Index.

Mr. Sanders was registered with Financial Network Investment Corporation (“Financial Network”) from November 1998 through October 2008; Invest Financial Corporation (“Invest Financial”) from October 2008 through January 2014; and Triad Advisors, Inc. (“Triad Advisors”) from January 2014 to December 2014.  While still with Invest Financial, Mr. Sanders switched clearing firms from Pershing to TD Ameritrade in May 2013.  Mr. Sanders was also the owner-operator of two investment advisory firms – Sanders Yearian Advisory Group, Inc. and Leavitt Financial Group, Inc. – and was associated with Capital Asset Advisory Services, LLC.

Given in the sustained low interest rate environment, many income-oriented investors have been steered by their investment advisors into oil and gas investments and other alternative or non-conventional investments.  However, non-traded investments like oil and gas limited partnerships are among the most speculative, high-risk investments available.  The category of oil and gas investments is one of the “Top Investor Threats” identified by the North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”), which is the organization of state securities regulators.  They are often sold to investors by brokers and brokerage firms because of the high sales commissions paid to such brokers.

Please call us if you have questions about your oil and gas investments or other investments.  We offer a free initial consultation.  If based on that consultation we feel that further review is needed, we will analyze your situation and provide a recommendation on whether and how to proceed at no charge to you.  Cases are typically handled on a contingent fee basis – i.e., the attorney’s fee is a percentage of any amount we recover on your behalf.

Foerster allegedly perpetrated this fraud over a 14 year period from 2000 to 2014 while he was associated with three different brokerage firms.  Foerster was associated with Raymond James & Associates, Inc. from February 2013 to June 2014; Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. from February 2008 to February 2013; and Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. d/b/a Smith Barney from July 1997 to February 2008.

In 2014, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) barred Foerster from the securities industry due to allegations that he was running a Ponzi scheme.  Foerster was terminated by Raymond James in 2014 after he admitted that he had misappropriated client funds.

Our attorneys have represented investors in securities arbitrations for over 25 years.  If you believe you have been defrauded by Claus Foerster, we would like to speak with you.  We will assess your case and make a recommendation at no charge.  Our cases are typically handled on a contingent fee basis, in which the attorneys’ fee is an amount equal to one-third of the amount recovered.

These firms have a history of regulatory violations and customer complaints:

• The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has fined and/or reprimanded IMS Securities Inc. twice for failure to supervise and once for allowing a registered representative to sell securities in Texas without being licensed in Texas.
• In 2014, FINRA fined Berthel Fisher and Affiliate, Securities Management & Research, $775,000 for supervisory failures related to sales of non-traded REITs and leveraged and inverse ETFs.
• Centaurus Financial Inc. has been sanctioned by regulators for supervisory failures and other violations on multiple occasions. Centaurus Financial Inc. has been a named respondent in at least seven (7) FINRA arbitrations which awarded a combined total of over $2.9 million in favor of investor claimants.
• VSR Financial Services, Inc. has also been sanctioned by regulators for supervisory failures and other violations on multiple occasions. VSR Financial Services, Inc. has been a named respondent in at least six (6) FINRA arbitrations which awarded a combined total of at least $676,964 in favor of investor claimants.

Shares of United Development Funding IV are down over 81% in the last 12 months.  Our attorneys have represented investors in securities arbitrations for over 25 years.  If you have suffered losses in any United Development Funding REIT, we would like to speak with you.  We will assess your case and make a recommendation at no charge.  Our cases are typically handled on a contingent fee basis, in which the attorneys’ fee is an amount equal to one-third of the amount recovered.

An investment in a public non-traded REIT is essentially an investment in in an illiquid start-up real estate company that must accumulate assets quickly and is subject to significant risks. Such an investment is unsuitable for most investors.  Non-traded REITs are typically sold to unsuspecting retail (“mom and pop”) investors who are seeking yield in the low-interest rate environment.  They get pitched to investors by financial advisers who are incentivized to sell non-traded REITs by getting paid outsized commissions from the company.

Shares of UDF IV were initially sold through a securities brokerage firm named Realty Capital Securities, LLC (“RCS”), as the Dealer Manager of the securities offering, and possibly through various other Soliciting Dealers – securities brokerage firms that may have been retained by RCS to sell shares of UDF IV.  RCS reportedly raised over $1 billion from retail investors and was paid commissions and fees for selling UDF IV to retail investors.

UDF IV has since used that money to provide liquidity for UDF I and UDF III, and now UDF V is being used to provide liquidity to UDF IV, according to a Business Insider article by Julia La Roche that can be found at http://businessinsider.com/short-seller-report-on-united-development-funding-reit-2015-12.

As previously noted, shares of United Development Funding IV collapsed 55% to $3.20 per share on Thursday, February 18, before trading was halted.  Our attorneys have represented investors in securities arbitrations for over 25 years.  If you have suffered losses in any United Development Funding REIT, we would like to speak with you.  We will assess your case and make a recommendation at no charge.  Our cases are typically handled on a contingent fee basis, in which the attorneys’ fee is an amount equal to one-third of the amount recovered.

What investors need to know is this.  Class actions lawsuits are designed to take a large group of investors with very small losses and aggregate them into a single lawsuit.  At the end of the process, the recovery is typically small.  There is another, better path for investors with significant losses, and that is filing a securities arbitration claim against the brokerage firm that sold the investment.

Investment advisers, brokers and their firms have a legal duty to understand and communicate to investors all the material facts about an investment, including the risks, before the investment is made.  In other words, they have a duty not to misrepresent or fail to disclose any important facts before the investment is made.  In addition, they have a duty not to recommend an investment that is unsuitable for the investor based on the investor’s investment objective, risk tolerance and time horizon.  If any of these duties is breached, and losses occur, the investor has a compelling claim to recover those losses in arbitration.

Our attorneys have represented investors in securities arbitrations for over 25 years.  If you invested in UDF IV, we would like to speak with you.  We will assess your case and make a recommendation at no charge.  Our cases are typically handled on a contingent fee basis, in which the attorneys’ fee is an amount equal to one-third of the amount recovered.