PWCK Law Firm: OptionSellers.com Investors Need to Ensure They Seek Recourse in the Right Venue
OptionSellers.com Investors Wiped Out in Hedge Fund Face Margin
Calls for Additional Funds, Are Getting Hounded by INTL FCStone to Sign
Away Their Legal Rights, and Now May Be Getting Steered in Wrong
Direction.
The following was issued by: PEIFFER WOLF CARR & KANE.
Investors wiped
out in the recent OptionSellers.com natural gas investment debacle
now face a new challenge: legal advice from firms that may not have
experience in futures arbitration and commodities litigation, according
to Joseph Peiffer, attorney and managing partner at Peiffer Wolf Carr &
Kane (PWCK). For more information, go to https://www.optionsellerslawsuits.com/.
A small law firm announced last week that it was initiating FINRA
arbitration proceedings on behalf of a Michigan family and others
cleaned out in the OptionSellers.com hedge collapse. But, Peiffer noted
that FINRA arbitration (which focuses on regulation of broker-dealers)
has no role to play in this case, which will likely be handled in
National Futures Association (NFA) arbitration, federal court in
Chicago, or both.
Both OptionSellers.com and the firm handling the fund’s option investor
accounts, INTL FCStone, are regulated by the NFA and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Here, OptionSellers.com is a
commodities trading advisor and INTL FCStone (in this capacity) is a
futures commission merchant (FCM), which means that it solicits or
accepts orders to buy or sell futures contracts, options on futures,
retail off-exchange forex contracts or swaps, and accepts money or other
assets from customers to support such orders.
Attorney Peiffer said: “Remember, these investors just lost
everything and still have INTL FCStone breathing down their neck;
FCStone is simultaneously trying to collect on margin calls while
pressuring these folks to sign away their last chip: their legal rights.
Now, you likely have investors seeking recourse in the wrong venue. What
kind of message do you think this sends a Fortune 500 company?”
PWCK is a national law firm with 20 attorneys on its team that can take
on OptionSellers.com and INTL FCStone, which is ranked
#83 on the list of Fortune 500 companies.
Attorney Peiffer added: “This case isn't about your typical FINRA
broker/broker-dealer relationship. This case is going to require
significant resources and funding, the OptionSellers investors need a
law firm with the experience, leverage, size, and financial wherewithal
to fight a Fortune 100 adversary.”
Here is what PWCK is advising OptionSellers.com investors now:
-
Get legal help now before making any decisions.
-
Do not respond to INTL FCStone’s demands for margin call payments
without seeking legal advice.
-
Do not agree to sign away your legal rights to challenge INTL FCStone
or any other party involved in the OptionSellers.com matter.
OptionSellers.com investors face real challenges. In addition to losing
all of their investments in the natural gas hedge fund, they also face
demands for additional sums in the form of margin calls from INTL
FCStone, which is also pressuring investors to sign away their rights to
pursue any kind of legal challenge.
The OptionSellers.com hedge fund engaged in wildly speculative trading
in natural gas options. James Cordier, the president of the firm, was a
viral internet sensation in November when he issued a
weepy explanatory video.
Even with a focus on high-net-worth individuals, OptionSellers.com was
aggressively marketed to a wide spectrum of individuals, including
unsophisticated retirees. In addition to $150 million or more lost in
the hedge fund itself, the margin calls disclosed to date total more
than $35 million but could add up to considerably more.
OptionSellers.com stumbled in the volatile energy markets with
disastrous results last month. In mid-November, oil prices fell by the
largest amount in a single day in three years and then on the very next
day natural gas futures had their biggest intraday gain in eight years.
In a 2013 lawsuit filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC), James Cordier, president of OptionSellers.com, his partner
Michael Gross, and former firm Liberty Trading Group were charged nearly
$50,000 for improper trading.
Separately, INTL FCStone was involved in its own natural-gas options
controversy in 2013. As reported in a CFTC notice in May of that year,
the CFTC fined the company $1.5 million for a failure “to prevent an
unchecked customer from taking grossly excessive risks” and the
brokerage ended up with losses of $127 million.
Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane has extensive experience in handling national
investment fraud cases.
In August, PWCK took legal action on behalf of victims of an elaborate
investment scheme that succeeded in large part through the credibility
lent to the scheme by a network of “middlemen” insurance agents,
brokers, financial planners/investment advisors (IAs) and others who
roped in unwary investors for Future Income Payments LLC (FIP). Peiffer
Wolf Carr & Kane launched a coordinated wave of five lawsuits in the Los
Angeles area, Houston, Chicago area, northern Florida, and
Philadelphia/New Jersey targeting the seemingly legitimate financial
professionals who made the FIP scheme work. For more information in that
case, go to https://fiplawsuit.com.
ABOUT PEIFFER WOLF CARR & KANE
Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, APLC is a national law firm with offices in
New Orleans, New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and
Missouri. https://prwlegal.com/.
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