Some Energy, Oil and Gas investments can only legally be sold to a limited section of the investing public. If you suffered losses we may be able to
help. Contact us at 303-300-5022 for a free consultation.
Oil and gas investors do not have to sit and watch their life savings diminish. These investors have rights though many are unaware of the recourse they have for such losses.
Many investors have received high pressure sales of oil and gas investments. Brokers and other investment professionals like to sell these types of investments because they usually pay a very high commission. These commissions can be 10 to 20 times higher than the commission on your average stock sale. The high commissions will often cause these individuals to ignore the rules in the sale of such investments. The two rules that are usually ignored are those concerning accreditation and suitability.
Oil and gas limited partnerships can generally only be sold to “accredited” investors. Such investors are individuals whose liquid net worth, their net worth excluding their home, is in excess of $1 million. The second rule that is commonly violated in the sale of such investments is the suitability rule. Oil and gas investments are known by investment professionals to generally be very high risk investments. Investments need to be consistent with the level of risk that an investor is willing or able to take. For example, a person approaching or in retirement or who cannot otherwise afford to take high levels of risk with their investments could not legally be offered an oil and gas investment.
Likewise, an individual who expresses a desire for conservative or moderate investments would not be a suitable investor. There are many other rules that can potentially be violated in the sale of oil and gas investments.
Regulators have confirmed that oil and gas investments, such as oil and gas exchange traded products, ETPs, should not be sold to average investors. Such investments should only be sold to the most sophisticated investors. Failure to do so creates liability on the part of the broker.
Problems exist not just with the investment losses, but also with the tax consequence of investing in these companies. A detailed description is found in the following Link to Forbes. In short, these investments are partnerships. When debt is defaulted upon by a partnership, and the lender “writes off” the debt, the write off means that the owners (the investors) are taxed as if they received the amount written off as income. Considering some limited partnerships defaulted on billions in loans, the tax obligation of investors is substantial.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call. These rules apply no matter if you invest in individual oil or gas investments or invest through a mutual fund or master limited partnership (MLP).
Common oil and gas investments we see recoverable losses include Linn Energy (“LINE” or “LNCO”) and more information can be found at www.jpedersonlaw.com/blog/linn-energy-losses/, Williams Companies (“WMB”), Penn West Petroleum (“PWE”), BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (“BPT”), Breitburn Energy Partners, LP (“BBEP”), Hawthorne, SandRidge Energy, Williams Ridgewood Energy, Apco, Atlas Energy, Midstates Petroleum, Peabody Energy, Resolute Energy, XXI Energy, Nobel, Permian Basin, Breitburn and Breitling Energy. Some of these losses may be recoverable by class action while others may require individual FINRA arbitration suits.
More information on SandRidge can be found at this link.
Jeffrey Pederson is an attorney who works with investors to recover losses in FINRA arbitration and has represented investors in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut , Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, in FINRA arbitration actions against securities brokerage firms for unsuitable investments. Please call for a confidential and free consultation.
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