Corporate & Securities Law

Attorneys at SNSFE are investigating a broker who has been barred for 10 years by the New York Stock Exchange.  The New York Stock Exchange announced last week that it had banned Luis Miguel Cespedes who worked for A.G. Edwards & Sons.  He was found to have put more than a dozen clients' money into volatile technology securities and then piled on margin debt.  When the technology bubble burst, the investors -- many of them elderly and inexperienced investors -- were wiped out. 

NYSE officials couldn't immediately recall the last time a 10-year ban was issued. 

A.G. Edwards asked Cespedes, who currently lives in Capistrano Beach, California, to resign in October 2001.  The firm, now owned by Wachovia Corp., has since settled with 15 of the clients for a total of about $1 million. 

Cespedes primarily invested the clients in technology-heavy "Unit Investment Trusts" which are unmanaged funds tied to a set basket of securities. 

SNSFE attorneys welcome comments from those with information.