Securities Arbitration Lawyer Blog
Popular Securities broker Jose Ramon Martinez has six pending customer complaints on his CRD, including a customer complaint filed in late October 2020 claiming $500,000 in losses. The claims allege that recommendations to invest in Puerto Rico securities were unsuitable given the clients’ risk tolerance and Puerto Rico’s well-known deteriorating financial condition.
Mr. Martinez (CRD#: 1402991) has been in the securities industry for 33 years. He has been registered with Popular Securities in San Juan, Puerto Rico, since 2008.
Mr. Martinez has been the subject of twenty-one customer complaints, most of which allege violations similar to those outlined in the pending case filed in 2020: unsuitable recommendations, overconcentration, and misrepresentation related to Puerto Rico municipal bonds and closed-end funds.
Iorio Altamirano LLP es un bufete de abogados de arbitraje de valores con experiencia representando a inversionistas en todo el país ante el foro de pleitos de arbitraje de FINRA. Iorio Altamirano LLP tiene experiencia en pleitos de arbitraje sobre bonos municipales de Puerto Rico y fondos de bonos de Puerto Rico. Puede conocer más sobre nuestro bufete aquí.
Popular Securities LLC
FINRA censured and fined Popular Securities LLC $125,000 for supervisory failures related to sales of Puerto Rican bonds in December 2014. Specifically, FINRA’s investigation found that between July 2011, and June 2013, Popular Securities LLC failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and procedures reasonably designed to identify and review concentrated securities purchases, including Puerto Rico municipal bonds and closed-end funds.
Puerto Rico Bond Crisis
The Puerto Rico municipal debt market crashed at the end of the summer of 2013, following Detroit’s bankruptcy filing that July. Overconcentration in Puerto Rico securities and lack of diversification across markets and credit risks has caused millions of dollars in losses to investors since.
The Puerto Rico municipal bond and closed-end fund crisis has also led to an unprecedented number of investor claims before FINRA.
Investors are still reeling from the losses in their investments and have faced additional downgrades by credit agencies:
- July 2016: Puerto Rico defaulted on its general obligation (GO) bond debt. S&P downgraded Puerto Rico’s credit to a “D” rating.
- July 2017: Fitch Ratings downgraded COFINA bonds to D (in default and lowest grade rated by this agency).
- October 2017: Moody’s downgraded Puerto Rico’s GO, COFINA, and other debt citing a negative outlook.
Puerto Rico is barred from filing for traditional bankruptcy. It has no access to US bankruptcy laws. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, was passed by Congress on June 9, 2016, to address Puerto Rico’s financial crisis. At the time of PROMESA filing on May 3, 2017, Puerto Rico was $72 billion in debt.
Puerto Rico closed-end funds sold to individual investors were not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Under Section 6(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, broker-dealers selling mutual funds in Puerto Rico were not required to comply with significant investor protections afforded to Americans on the mainland.
Congress closed the loophole in May 2018 via amendment through the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
Our Firm
Iorio Altamirano LLP is a securities arbitration law firm based in New York, NY. We pursue FINRA arbitration claims nationwide on behalf of investors to recover financial losses arising out of wrongful conduct by financial advisors and brokerage firms.
If you have suffered investment losses, contact New York securities arbitration lawyer Jorge Altamirano of Iorio Altamirano LLP at jorge@ia-law.com or toll-free at (855) 430-4010 for a free and confidential evaluation of your account.
Iorio Altamirano LLP is a bilingual law firm, fluent in both English and Spanish.