Gilman and Pastor, LLP
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Wareham, MA
Boston, MA
Securities Fraud/ Shareholder Rights
For over 30 years, Gilman and Pastor, LLP has successfully enforced the rights of investors who have been victimized by various forms of securities fraud or manipulation. The firm has prosecuted a wide range of class and derivative actions under federal securities and state corporate laws. Gilman and Pastor, LLP has been especially active in the more difficult types of securities litigation, including cases involving the liability of third party professionals, such as accountants and attorneys; failed brokerage firms; insiders and controlling persons; and limited partnership investments.

One of the cornerstones of the Firm's practice since the inception of the firm has been securities litigation. We have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for institutional and individual investors defrauded by unscrupulous management of publicly held corporations.

Financial fraud is running at epidemic proportions in the current market. Every year, more numerous and larger financial frauds occur. The past few years have seen even well-established companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Cendent and many other companies involved in massive financial frauds that have caused more than $100 billion in losses to their investors.

Our Firm also represents individual investors who have been victimized by broker-dealers and mutual fund company fraudulent practices, including but not limited to; churning, deceptive practices, unauthorized trading, negligence, margin practices, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability claims and securities fraud in connection with the issuance, purchase and sale of securities.


  • Institutional Investor Litigation



For more information, contact us.



Current Investigations

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
We are actively investigating and litigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses. Many third parties who were negligent and breached their fiduciary duties in failing to perform the necessary due diligence when advising their clients to invest in these funds.

We allege that the issuing firms, including brokers and investment banks, fail to disclose to ordinary investors that ETFs represent short-term speculation, that their trading expenses decrease returns to investors, and that most ETFs provide insufficient diversification.

ETFs can be, and have been, used to manipulate market prices, including having been used for short selling, that many observers claim have contributed to the market collapse of 2008. As a result, many investors have suffered significant losses, including their entire investments

Principal Protected Structured Notes
Major brokerage firms, ABN AMBO Bank N.V., AIG, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Bear Stearns, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Countrywide Securities, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, E-Trade, Harris National Bank, Incaptial LLP, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, RBC Royal Bank, Societe Generale, UBS Fraud, Wachovia, represented and sold principal protected notes (PPN) as safe and secure investment vehicles. We allege that these banks specifically targeted conservative, risk-averse investors who were seeking to preserve their capital and generate income. In fact, these notes subjected investors to significantly more risk than was disclosed.

These brokers and investment banks pushed their sales representatives to dump these products on their own retail. As early as 2005, industry regulators from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) raised concerns about misrepresentations regarding the safety and complexity of principal protected notes and other structured investment products.

Holders of these structured securities and principal protected notes (PPNs) face significant losses, including their entire principal investment.

Nuveen Funds (Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Massachusetts)
Gilman and Pastor is investigating the Nuveen Insured Premium Income Municipal Fund and other related instruments. We are investigating claims of breach of fiduciary duty by the issuing entities.

Amazon.com Cracked Kindle
Gilman and Pastor is investigating Amazon.com over its stock price decline in connection with the failed launch of its defective and problem-plagued hand-held computer book, Kindle.

We are investigating claims on behalf of Amazon.com investors who have incurred financial losses as the result of the stock price tumble on reports that Amazon.com’s much-anticipated, much hyped, and recently launched, Kindle product, which among its fanfare was claimed to revolutionize how books and magazines would be sold into the future, flopped.


Pending Litigation

Unlawful Variable Annuities
Gilman and Pastor, LLP is investigating unlawful variable annuities sales practices such as churning, excessive fees, false disclosures, market-timing trading, and unsuitable investment transfers.

Variable annuities are insurance contracts providing purchasers with future payments that fluctuate according to the performance of mutual funds and other managed funds into which a customer's money is invested. Variable annuities are sold by insurance companies and brokerage companies for commissions. According to the New York Times and other publications, various state and federal regulators are investigating the trading practices of the variable annuity industry.

On May 27, 2003, the NASD issued an Investor Alert with regard to the sales of variable annuities. It said, in part: "The marketing efforts used by some variable annuity sellers deserve scrutiny - especially when seniors are the targeted investors.

Sales pitches for these products might attempt to scare or confuse investors. One scare tactic used with seniors is to claim that a variable annuity will protect them from lawsuits or seizures of their assets. Many such claims are not based on facts, but nevertheless help land a sale."

Bernard Madoff Related Securities Litigation
We represent both persons and institutions who purchased investment funds with Bernard L. Madoff Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“BMIS”), as well related entities which were marketed as providing steady double-digit returns even in the most turbulent of markets.

In the litigation, we allege that these entities sacrificed their clients’ investments as part of a massive Ponzi scheme, including multiple acts of fraud, issuing false and misleading investment materials and statements and concealing information about the allocation of the Feeder Funds’ assets.

We are also actively investigating and litigating claims against many third parties who were negligent and breached their fiduciary duties in failing to perform the necessary due diligence when advising their clients to invest in these funds.

For more information Click Here.

ProShares Ultra and UltraShort Funds
We are prosecuting investor claims against ProShares Ultra Funds and UltraShort ProShares Funds, which have subjected investors to substantially more risk than was disclosed and resulted in enormous losses by investors.

ProShares touted its UltraShort ETFs including those listed above, as simple-to-execute investments which go up when markets go down. Although ProShares touts its securities and cloaks them with certainty due to allegedly reliable mathematical formulas, their math does not add up.

Holding the funds for more than one day or trading session will most certainly lead to enormous losses. ProShares has now conceded that mathematical compounding actually prevents these funds from achieving their stated investment objectives over a period of time greater than one day.

For more information Click Here.

Structured Notes and Principal Protected Notes
We are prosecuting investor complaints against brokerage firms, financial institutions and entities misled their clients into purchasing these purported fully principal protected notes, through assurances that their principal investment would be fully protected. Certain financial institutions including ABN AMBO Bank N.V., AIG, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Bear Stearns, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Countrywide Securities, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, E-Trade, Harris National Bank, Incaptial LLP, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, RBC Royal Bank, Societe Generale, UBS Fraud, Wachovia, and others.

We allege that these banks specifically targeted conservative, risk-averse investors who were seeking to preserve their capital and generate income. In fact, these notes subjected investors to significantly more risk than was disclosed. Holders of these structured securities and principal protected notes (PPNs) face significant losses, including their entire principal investment.

For more information Click Here.

State Street Securities Litigation
Gilman and Pastor, LLP are representing investors against State Street for breaches of fiduciary duties established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), as well as other ERISA violations, when they carelessly engaged in "securities lending" for their own benefit and in a manner that involved imprudent and unreasonable risk of loss to the 401(k) and pension plans that invested in the Collective Trusts. The 401(k) and pension plans suffered large financial losses as a result of these risky securities lending practices.

Epstein v. AIG, et al.
We are prosecuting a securities class action on behalf of investors of AIG and several investment banking firms that acted as sales agents for the Structured Note offerings.

AIG offered and sold Structured Notes to the public through various investment banking firms and broker-dealers, including AIG Financial Securities Corp., ABN AMRO Incorporated, Banca IMI S.p.A., Banc of America Securities LLC, Barclays Capital, Inc., Bear Stearns & Co., Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., BNY Capital Markets, Inc., Calyon Securities (USA) Inc., Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Daiwa Securities America, Inc., Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Limited, Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co., Greenwich Capital Markets Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Lehman Brothers Inc., McDonald Investments Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International plc, Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Nomura Securities International, Inc., RBC Capital Markets Corporation, Santander Investment Securities Inc., Scotia Capital (USA) Inc., SG Americas Securities, LLC, TD Securities (USA), LLC, UBS Securities LLC, and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC.

We allege that the documentation accompanying the Notes were false and misleading in failing to disclose AIG’s looming financial meltdown at the time of the offering, and that when this information became public, the market value of the Notes declined substantially. As a result, many investors lost their entire investments.
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$11 Million Recovery for Investors Against Radisson
Gilman and Pastor, LLP served as lead counsel in Sullivan, et al. v. Shearson California Radisson Plaza Partners, Limited Partnership, et al., No. 89-5472-JMI (C.D. Cal.), a case arising out of a publicly offered limited partnership wherein claims under the 1934 Exchange Act and the 1933 Securities Act were asserted on behalf of the investors. The case involved complex issues of hotel appraisal and valuation, and resulted in a settlement valued in excess of $11 million on behalf of the class.

$15 Million Settlement in Securities Fraud Action for Securities Market Manipulation.
The firm served as Co-Lead Counsel in In re Blech Securities Litigation, 94-CIV-7696-RWS (S.D. N.Y.) asserting market manipulation claims against the brokerage firm of D. Blech & Co., its principals, its clearing broker, Bear Stearns & Company and several other alleged participants in connection with an alleged scheme to inflate the prices of various biotechnology securities. In a vigorously litigated case, the firm obtained certification of a class of purchasers of 22 separate securities, successfully opposed various motions to dismiss, and, subsequently, motions for summary judgment, and after extensive discovery and trial preparation, negotiated over $15 million in cash settlements on behalf of the class. This case resulted in extremely important reported judicial opinions concerning clearing broker and other liability issues. In re Blech Securities Litigation, 961 F. Supp. 569 (S.D. N.Y. 1997).

$50 Million Recovery for Investors In re Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Securities Litigation
In In re Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 03-10165-RWZ (D. Mass.), Gilman and Pastor represented the lead plaintiff in a securities fraud case involving the company’s misrepresentations about correspondence from the FDA with respect to prospects for approval of one of the company’s key products. The litigation resulted in a recovery for the class of $50 Million.

$25 Million Recovery for Investors in Oxford Securities Litigation
Gilman and Pastor, LLP, as lead class counsel, achieved successful settlements in the case of Hutson, et al. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, et al. (S.D.N.Y.) and Oxford Tax Exempt Fund Securities Litigation, No. 95-3643 (D.Md.). The cases were resolved after prosecution with total settlements valued in excess of $25 Million. As lead counsel, Gilman and Pastor, LLP was responsible for and managed all aspects of the complex litigation which also involved the subject areas of real estate financing and valuation, secured lending and foreclosure.

$18 Million Recovery in Shareholder Derivative Action Arising from Merger
Gilman and Pastor, LLP served as Co-Lead Counsel in Caven v. Miller, et al. No. H-96-CV-3464 (EW) (S.D. Tex.), a shareholder derivative action arising out of the merger of a publicly held hospital company with and into a firm in the same industry that had been privately held. After the merger, the successor firm downwardly restated its financial results due to its own previously undisclosed accounting irregularities and losses. After defeating motions to dismiss on various grounds, conducting discovery, and engaging in mediations, Plaintiffs recovered over $18 million in benefits on behalf of the successor company from various insiders of both companies involved.

$14 Million Recovery for Investors In re Immunex Securities Litigation
The firm served as one of four co-lead counsel representing a class of securities purchasers in In re Immunex Securities Litigation, No. C92-548 (W.D. Wash.), and obtained a settlement of $14 million.

$14 Million Recovery for Investors In re Granada Partnership Securities Litigation
Gilman and Pastor, LLP was one of five firms actively involved in the In re Granada Partnership Securities Litigation, MDL No. 837 (S.D. Tex.), in which settlements in excess of $14 million were reached with certain of the defendants. This was an extremely contentious lawsuit in which every procedural step was a pitched battle. After protracted litigation with extensive motion practice, the partial settlement was reached, which accounted for virtually all of the available financial resources of the settling defendants.

$25 Million Settlement in Enstar Group Securities Litigation
Gilman and Pastor, LLP successfully obtained settlements totaling in excess of $29 Million from several defendants, including a major accounting firm, a major law firm, and former outside directors for securities law violations.

$60 Million Settlement In Alert Income Parties Securities Litigation
Gilman and Pastor successfully prosecuted a securities action against the promoters of a series of limited partnerships and their auditors, reaching settlement valued at $60 Million.
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