Think You’re the Victim of Investment Fraud? Here’s What You Should Do.

The following is adapted from The Investor Protector.

When I tell people I’m a trial lawyer, I say it proudly, fully understanding that their first reaction might be an internal eye roll. I get it. If your only experience with lawyers is based on what you see on television with cheesy advertisements, it’s easy to believe the stereotypes.?

The reality, though, couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve spent my entire career helping people up when they’re down. As an investment fraud lawyer, I fight to level the playing field, restore financial security, and earn my clients the justice they deserve.?

My cases are not the kind you hear about frequently in the news, and the reason is simple: many victims of investment fraud never pursue their claims. They think nothing can be done.?

That’s a mistake, though. Often, there is something that can be done: I learned that early in my career. In fact, I learned it with the very first investment fraud case I filed. The outcome of that case—where my team and I took on Wall Street and won, to the tune of $262 million—proved to me that if someone thinks they’re the victim of fraud, it’s imperative they seek out an experienced lawyer to help them.

Falling for the Con

In 1998, three years after I completed law school, I filed my first investment fraud case (a class action lawsuit) on behalf of 300 families. These families had all had their investment portfolios, worth tens of millions of dollars, liquidated by one financial advisor at Prudential Securities.?

The majority of the class members were retired Whirlpool and GTE line workers with no investment or brokerage firm experience prior to their Prudential relationship. They trusted their advisor and Prudential with their life savings, unaware there was even a possibility their money was in the wrong hands.?

Like most people, these families never imagined that their financial advisor would lie to them, cheat the system, and put at risk everything they’d worked their entire lives to save. Unfortunately, they were wrong: while the majority of financial advisors and brokerage firms are good and honest, there are deceptive advisors out there who will ruin your life.

They entrusted large sums of money to their financial advisor because they believed he was an expert. It turns out that they unknowingly put their trust in the wrong hands.?

David vs. Goliath

I knew when I filed the case that it was a massive undertaking. But I couldn’t stand by and do nothing so I put together a team and went to work. These families were relying entirely on a verdict in their favor to recover their financial security. Their fear—and the weight of responsibility I felt—was undeniable.

We fought day and night for years against Prudential’s army of Wall Street lawyers with their exceptional resumes, impressive track records, aggressive defense strategies, and seemingly unlimited resources. Many nights, I slept at the office, and my wife would bring me dinner and a change of clothes.?

We were certainly outgunned, but we would not be outworked. My team lacked the experience and bottomless wallets of our Wall Street opponents, but we made up for it with passion and commitment to make things right. We had no other choice: we had to follow through on our promise to the families we represented that we would do everything in our power to get them the justice they deserved.?

For the one-month jury trial, my team and I rented a local bed and breakfast and made it our temporary home base. When we weren’t in court, we were there, often working more than 18 hours a day. My son was only seven months old at the time, and I was painfully aware that the sacrifices I made for my job impacted my family.? To me, though, this case was more than a job; it was a cause.?

A Unanimous Verdict

After a month in trial, many witnesses called to the stand, and countless hours of work, we had our result. The unanimous jury awarded our clients nearly $12 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Winning a $262 million jury verdict at 32 was an incredible experience I will remember my entire life.?

To this day, the result of Burns v. Prudential Securities remains the largest jury verdict in Ohio’s history. The appellate court reduced the punitive damages, but, in the end, we recovered $30 million with every family recovering more than 100 percent of their losses.?

They cried when the verdict was read. I cried when the verdict was read. Prudential’s executives probably even cried (but for very different reasons). That first big investment fraud case was legendary, and it set me up to take on Wall Street for the rest of my career.?

I learned that investment fraud is a serious threat to investors, specifically to retirees who depend on their savings to last them the rest of their lives. I gained firsthand experience with the sophisticated and aggressive tactics utilized by Wall Street to defend cases brought against them.?

Find the Right Lawyer

The other thing I learned? There are only a limited number of lawyers who have significant experience handling these types of cases. For instance, the original Whirlpool retiree who brought his case to our office searched for months for legal representation before finding me.

Even now, over 20 years later, my firm is one of a small number in the nation with a team of lawyers specifically dedicated to the niche practice area of representing investment fraud victims in cases against their financial advisors. Focusing on this area of law is a commitment that requires a robust legal team with exceptional expertise and plentiful resources to level the playing field against the army of experienced and well-funded Wall Street lawyers on the other side.?

It’s vital you take the time to find the right lawyer, though. You don’t want a divorce lawyer or a personal injury lawyer to handle your very specialized case of investment fraud. You have one chance to recover the money lost at the hands of a bad broker, and you need to find someone who has the experience, notoriety, team, and resources to get the results you deserve.

After dedicating decades to help these victims in their fight, I’ve found that the real requirement for an investment fraud lawyer is the right combination of passion and compassion—the passion for aggressively and strategically fighting for clients and the compassion for understanding why clients hire us in the first place. After all, it’s not just about lost money, is it??

It’s about the shame and embarrassment harbored simply for trusting that people will do what they say they will. It’s about working and saving, anticipating and planning, only to have a cheater take a shortcut and destroy everything. It’s about the challenges of growing old and losing cognitive function, and people seeing this loss as their gain.

Don’t Waste Your Chance

Bottom line, if you’re a victim of investment misconduct, you can’t take any chances. The legal team you hire must be trustworthy, knowledgeable, and successful. Your attorney must be passionate and compassionate, ready for a challenge, and able to anticipate obstacles. Most importantly, he or she must have a long track record of winning.

No systematic hurdle or Wall Street defense stands a chance against an experienced legal team fighting for the ultimate prize: their client’s redemption. Remember, if you’re the victim of investment fraud, your legal team is the one shot you have to get everything back. Don’t waste it.

For more advice on how to protect yourself from investment fraud, you can find The Investor Protector on Amazon.

David Meyer is the managing principal of Meyer Wilson, a national law firm he founded to represent investment fraud victims in their fight against deceptive brokers. Meyer Wilson is one of the nation’s leading investment fraud firms, recovering millions of dollars for clients throughout the last 20 years. David is currently the president of two bar associations: the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association and the Ohio Association for Justice. Included in The Best Lawyers in America?, David has also been twice named “Lawyer of the Year'' by the publication in his practice area and location. For more information about David’s investor claims law practice, visit investorclaims.com.