|
 The $5.4 million includes a rare award of $1 million in punitive
damages to the broker, Edward Dulin, according to a ruling late on
Friday by a panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
It also recommended erasing details about 39 arbitration complaints
from Dulin's public record filed against UBS Financial Services Inc
by clients who bought the notes, known as principal protected notes.
Those complaints devastated Dulin's business, said his lawyer,
Rosemary Shockman, in Phoenix, Arizona.
UBS is disappointed with the decision, and believes it is "legally
and factually incorrect," a spokesman said. The firm is evaluating
its options, including whether to ask a court to overturn the
ruling, the spokesman said.
Principal protection notes are fixed-income securities that include
a bond and an option component that offers a minimum return equal to
the initial investment. They are tailored for risk-averse investors.
Dulin was a major producer for UBS in Scottsdale, Arizona, bringing
in $2.2 million in revenue during 2007, the year before Lehman's
bankruptcy filing, according to Shockman. Dulin advised his clients
to buy Lehman principal protected notes using information that UBS
included in training materials and prospectuses for its brokers,
Shockman said. That included telling clients that their principal
was protected, she said.
But the notes plummeted in value when Lehman filed for bankruptcy on
September 15, 2008. Until then, Lehman had been Wall Street's
fourth-largest investment bank.
Dulin, who worked for UBS from 2000 to 2008, left voluntarily and
joined Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit in 2008. But
details about a mounting number of arbitration complaints stemming
from the notes Dulin sold at UBS appeared on his public disclosure
record and scared off clients at Merrill, Shockman said.
A Merrill Lynch spokesman declined to comment.
[to top of second column] |
FINRA rules require that firms report those details on public
records of brokers who facilitated the transaction at issue in an
arbitration complaint, but who were not named in the case.
UBS exaggerated those details to retaliate against Dulin who refused
during legal proceedings to slant descriptions of his conversations
with clients in ways that would protect UBS, Shockman said.
A UBS spokesman declined additional comment.
Arbitrators wrote that they included the punitive damages award
because UBS withheld material information about Lehman's "sinking
financial condition" and continued to recommend selling the notes.
One of the three arbitrators disagreed with the punitive damages
award.
The panel, in an unusual move, also ordered UBS to pay Dulin $4
million in the event a court refuses to issue an order that confirms
its recommendation to erase, or expunge, details about the 39
customer complaints from Dulin's record. Industry rules require
courts to confirm expungement recommendations.
"I've never heard of anything like that before," said Tom Lewis, a
securities lawyer for Stevens & Lee in Princeton, New Jersey, who
was not involved in the case. "The panel stepped over the line with
that. It could very well give UBS an opportunity to appeal the
entire award through the court system."
(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid and Grant
McCool)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
