James Lamont, Financial Advisor/Broker James Lamont Ordered to Cease and Desist by State of California
James Lamont has been licensed with Whitehall-Parker Securities, Inc. since 2015. James Lamont was previously licensed with Independent Financial Group, LLC. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. is investigating the possible involvement of James Lamont in the sale of Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds.
On December 20, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an action alleging that the Woodbridge investment was a massive Ponzi scheme, and that new investor money was used to pay the returns owed to existing investors. The SEC also alleges that Woodbridge's business model was a sham, and that Woodbridge and Woodbridge's owner and President, Robert H. Shapiro, misused and misappropriated investor monies. The SEC points out that Woodbridge admits in its bankruptcy filing that it has less than $12 million in its bank accounts while having investor liabilities approaching $1 billion.
The SEC also alleges that many of the properties Woodbridge purchased remain as vacant lots that have set undeveloped for several years. According to the SEC, nearly all of the purported third-party borrowers were actually limited liability companies owned and controlled by Woodbridge, which had no revenue, no bank accounts and never paid any interest under the loans.
The California Department of Business Oversight (CDBO) alleges that James Lamont sold real estate based loan instruments through Woodbridge Group, which Woodbridge Group claimed were non-securities but which the CDBO determined are securities. The California Department of Business Oversight filed a consent order calling for James Lamont to desist and refrain from selling any securities not properly registered or exempted within the state of California.
According to FINRA, James Lamont was suspended from the securities industyr for 18 months and fined $10,000 in October, 2019. According to FINRA, James Lamont solicited investors to purchase promissory notes relating to the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC, a purported real-estate investment fund. James Lamont sold $1,467,000 in Woodbridge promissory notes to seven investors, three of whom were also customers of Whitehall-Parker. Lamont allegedly received $81,417 in commissions in connection with these transactions.
If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds through James Lamont, you may be able to recover your losses from Independent Financial Group, LLC and/or Whitehall-Parker Securities, Inc. This is because The Independent Financial Group, LLC and Whitehall-Parker Securities, Inc. had a duty to supervise James Lamont.
If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds through James Lamont, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action against Independent Financial Group, LLC and/or Whitehall-Parker Securities, Inc. concerning James Lamont’s conduct. There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf. You will continue to own your claim in the Woodbridge Bankruptcy; our case involves a separate, additional avenue of recovery.
Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA, has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered more than $180 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you invested in the Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds with James Lamont and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.
See more at: http://rightsforinvestors.com/james-lamont-financial-advisor-broker-fraud