TerryJ2
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
wouldn't you know, the day b4 my FINRA hearing, difficult child has the day off from school.
Background: I used the broker that husband and I had known for 10 yrs, to consolodate P's assets (they were all over the U.S. and England) and make a plan for her care. I got snagged into investing into a fraudulant bond and lost several thousand dollars of P's money. I filed with-FINRA, which is a step down from the SEC. I filed against the owner and two brokers.
One of the brokers settled with-me out of court.
The owner has declared bankruptcy and is on hold.
The 3rd guy's atty almost settled with-me but at the last min., I discovered more info and refused to sign. He called for an emergency hearing to force the settlement and it was denied.
So we move forward tomorrow.
The arbitrator sent a fax saying that he would discuss the settlement with-us tomorrow. I'm guessing he's going to throw it out because the atty did not follow proper procedures (like notifying me! until it was too late).
I am now making copies of all of the newspaper clippings on this firm (a doz or so with-big, color photos), copies of P's photo so the arbitrator can see that this firm cheated an elderly woman out of her $ that was supposed to be totally liquid and totally safe, and copies of the actual form I filled out, which, in fact, I never filled out--it was done in the 3rd guy's handwriting.
I feel safe in my arguments, and rec'd help from a student and professor at Howard Univ. and can bring those notes with-me to the hearing.
Still, I've never faced an atty at a hearing b4, and I am my own atty. He's going to try to eat me alive by saying I shouldn't have signed it to begin with.
D*mn right I shouldn't have. But I trusted the owner of the firm and had had our own investments with-him for 10 yrs. How was I to know that this was a Ponzi scheme? It was totally based on trust.
I. Am. Breathing. Deeply.
wouldn't you know, the day b4 my FINRA hearing, difficult child has the day off from school.
Background: I used the broker that husband and I had known for 10 yrs, to consolodate P's assets (they were all over the U.S. and England) and make a plan for her care. I got snagged into investing into a fraudulant bond and lost several thousand dollars of P's money. I filed with-FINRA, which is a step down from the SEC. I filed against the owner and two brokers.
One of the brokers settled with-me out of court.
The owner has declared bankruptcy and is on hold.
The 3rd guy's atty almost settled with-me but at the last min., I discovered more info and refused to sign. He called for an emergency hearing to force the settlement and it was denied.
So we move forward tomorrow.
The arbitrator sent a fax saying that he would discuss the settlement with-us tomorrow. I'm guessing he's going to throw it out because the atty did not follow proper procedures (like notifying me! until it was too late).
I am now making copies of all of the newspaper clippings on this firm (a doz or so with-big, color photos), copies of P's photo so the arbitrator can see that this firm cheated an elderly woman out of her $ that was supposed to be totally liquid and totally safe, and copies of the actual form I filled out, which, in fact, I never filled out--it was done in the 3rd guy's handwriting.
I feel safe in my arguments, and rec'd help from a student and professor at Howard Univ. and can bring those notes with-me to the hearing.
Still, I've never faced an atty at a hearing b4, and I am my own atty. He's going to try to eat me alive by saying I shouldn't have signed it to begin with.
D*mn right I shouldn't have. But I trusted the owner of the firm and had had our own investments with-him for 10 yrs. How was I to know that this was a Ponzi scheme? It was totally based on trust.
I. Am. Breathing. Deeply.