Corporate & Securities Law

Eccleston Law is investigating the sales practices of World Group Securities, Inc. following recent SEC sanctions against the firm for failure to supervise in connection with recommendations to customers of the "use of home equity to purchase variable universal life insurance policies", which the SEC found to be unsuitable.  Our attorneys are actively seeking investors who suffered losses as a result of these investments. 

The recent SEC sanctions relate to a Pomona, California branch office of the firm. Eccleston Law has expanded the investigation to include all branch offices in California and nationwide, and is interested in speaking with customers who bought variable universal life insurance policies or who bought such securities through the use of home equity loans, which generally are unsuitable.

In 2008, the SEC filed an enforcement action against five World Group Securities representatives, Kederio Ainsworth, Guillermo Haro, Jesus Gutierrez, Gabriel Paredes, and Angel Romo (the "Defendants") for fraudulently selling unsuitable securities, primarily variable universal life policies. Most customers who bought these securities lacked the cash or income to do so but were urged by the defendants to raise the money to pay for the purchases and subsequent monthly payments required for these products by refinancing their fixed-rate mortgages into subprime adjustable-rate negative amortization mortgages. Most customers had little formal education beyond high school, had little prior investment experience and several did not speak English fluently, if at all.

In making the sales, the Defendants also allegedly misrepresented the expected returns from the securities, the liquidity of securities, and the nature of the securities and the terms of the new mortgages while failing to disclose material facts about the products.  The SEC also alleged that 2005 through 2007, each of the Defendants was a mortgage originator as well as a registered representative and collected compensation from the mortgage refinancing as well as the sales of securities. The Defendants used a mortgage company controlled by World Group Securities registered representatives which operated from the same office location as World Group Securities and was supervised by the World Group Securities branch office manager to facilitate the refinancing necessary to allow customers to purchase securities recommended by the defendants.  The SEC also alleged that the Defendants falsified customer account forms and prepared order tickets that contained information they knew was inaccurate relating to the securities sales.

Eccleston Law represents individual and institutional investors to recover their investment losses caused by unsuitable investment recommendations, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence or other misconduct. We have extensive experience representing investors in arbitration and litigation disputes with securities broker-dealers and investment advisory firms, and have recovered tens of millions of dollars for investors

If you have lost money investing with World Group Securities , or if you have information about these alleged sales practice violations, please contact Jim Eccleston at the Eccleston Law Offices at 312-332-0000 to discuss this matter.