Stifel Should Pay Purchasers Over $14M in Structured Notes Case: FINRA Panel

Stifel Nicolaus should pay roughly $14.2 million in damages, curiosity and costs to a Florida couple and a associated household enterprise over their investments in structured notes, a Monetary Trade Regulatory Authority arbitration panel ruled final week.

Louis and Elizabeth DeLuca of Jupiter, Florida, and the enterprise allege they sustained important losses associated to investments in advanced securities referred to as structured notes, in response to a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Courtroom in Florida in search of to substantiate the FINRA determination issued a day earlier.

Stifel plans to request that the award be vacated.

The couple first made claims in opposition to Stifel with FINRA in Might 2023, alleging breach of fiduciary obligation, negligence, negligent supervision, fraud, breach of contract and violation of the Florida Securities and Investor Safety Act. That they had sought $1 million to $5 million in punitive damages, plus prices, charges and different reduction that the panel deemed acceptable.

Stifel denied the claims, requested that FINRA award the DeLucas nothing, and sought expungement of fabric from dealer Chuck Roberts’ report; Roberts wasn’t named within the FINRA case or associated courtroom grievance.

The FINRA arbitration panel final week discovered that Stifel should pay the DeLucas almost $2 million in compensatory damages, together with curiosity; pay Louis DeLuca’s enterprise, UBS Inc.; over $2 million in compensatory damages, together with curiosity; and pay all three claimants $9 million in punitive damages and $1.1 million in lawyer’s charges, plus $100,000 in prices.

The FINRA panel denied Stifel’s expungement request.