If you were a victim of Steven Pagartanis please call 303-300-5022. The Law Offices of Jeffrey Pederson, PC is a firm that specializes in suits concerning securities brokers.
Pagartanis, the former Lombard and Cadaret broker from Long Island, N.Y., pleaded guilty Monday, December 10, 2018, in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for running a Ponzi scheme over 18 years
Investors have recourse when investment professionals turn bad.
Steven Pagartanis victims invested over $13 million and saw actual losses of more than $9 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
This former licensed securities broker solicited elderly victims to invest in real estate-related investments, including those affiliated with publicly traded companies and an international hotel conglomerate, according to the Department of Justice. Pagartanis promised his investors returns consistent with conservative investments-that their principal would be secure and earn a fixed return of 4.5% to 8% annually.
The victims wrote checks payable to an entity secretly controlled by Mr. Pagartanis at his direction, according to the government. He utilized a network of bank accounts to launder the stolen funds, which he used to pay personal expenses, buy luxury items and make the phony interest or dividend payments to other victims, according to the Department of Justice. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Recovery of these losses will focus on the employers of Pagartanis. These employers are required to have supervisory safeguards in place to prevent such actions. FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has rules that require licensed brokerages to take steps to monitor and detect private securities transactions away from the firm. Consequently, liability exists even if such actions were not taking place right under the nose of the firms. FINRA offers an arbitration forum to recover such losses.
The SEC also filed a civil suit concerning this matter in May 2018.
On June 26, 2019, a FINRA arbitration panel awarded an investor a judgment in the amount of $1.46 million against Pagartanis for his role iin the multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
Jeffrey Pederson is an attorney who helps investors recover losses from brokerage firms through the FINRA arbitration process. This is just one of the 17 customer complaint disclosures on his record.
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