Stoltmann Law Offices Announces The Filing of a FINRA Arbitration Claim Against Cabot Lodge Securities for Regulation Best Interest Violations in Connection with GWG L-Bond Losses

CHICAGO, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stoltmann Law Offices announces the filing of a FINRA Arbitration claim on behalf of a group of eighteen investors against Cabot Lodge Securities. The claims filed are in connection with Cabot Lodge's recommendations that the Claimants invest in GWG L-Bonds in violation of Regulation Best Interest and the Colorado Securities Act. FINRA Case No. 22-01460. The Claimants are seeking rescission of their GWG L-Bond investments, compensatory damages, costs, interest, and reasonable attorney's fees.

The Claimants allege that by early 2020, Cabot Lodge lacked any reasonable basis to continue offering GWG L-Bonds to their clients, in violation of Regulation Best Interest. "It is the duty of every brokerage firm to perform reasonable due diligence on investments prior to offering them to their clients to ensure the brokerage firm understands the risks, characteristics, benefits, and costs of any security." Said Chicago Attorney Joseph Wojciechowski.  "Firms comply with this obligation when they fully vet a securities offering through the firm's due diligence process to be aware of red-flags which may undermine the investment's ability to perform."

According to Chicago attorney Andrew Stoltmann: "By 2019, GWG was a fundamentally changed company.  Its life settlement business was failing. L-Bond investor money was no longer going towards buying life insurance policies, but instead was being used to help GWG's then CEO and COO cash out to the tune of $30 million and absorb a business that had lost hundreds of millions of dollars itself. This Beneficient transaction resulted in GWG booking a $2.4 billion 'goodwill' line item, on their balance sheet, which represented 67% of the company's assets.  All of this, the entire business, was dependent on selling L-Bonds to retail investors through this broker/dealer network.  That is not a viable business model and these facts were either ignored by brokerage firms, or their due diligence investigation was so lacking, that they didn't know them." Mr. Stoltmann ended: "And virtually every single investor we've interviewed was either told by their financial advisor, or otherwise believed, that their L-Bonds were secured by GWG's life insurance portfolio, when that was never true."    

According to Wojciechowski, "Brokerage Firms like Cabot Lodge have to answer for their non-stop approval of these GWG L-Bonds which as time went on became less viable investments. GWG admitted in its bankruptcy filing, that it used new L-Bond investor money to pay interest and principal payments to previous L-Bond investors.  Why wasn't GWG buying more life insurance policies and managing that portfolio profitably? These are fundamental and basic issues that required vetting by brokerage firms that sold GWG L-Bonds to their clients."

Stoltmann Law Offices is currently representing GWG L-Bond investors in securities arbitrations against the brokerage firms who recommended the investment to them. Please visit www.stoltmannlaw.com to learn about legal options to or call us at 312-332-4200.

SOURCE Stoltmann Law Offices