New Mexico Investment Loss Recovery Attorneys

New Mexico is a popular retirement destination in the U.S. Southwest, offering sunshine and mountain landscapes in the affluent communities of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, and many others. But where affluent retirement locales exist, financial fraudsters follow. While investment fraud can happen to anyone, seniors and retirees must be especially watchful because they are more vulnerable targets compared to other groups. Seniors are not only extra vulnerable to exploitation, but they will also have a harder time recovering from investment schemes because of their age and having already exited the workforce. Malecki Law is an investment loss recovery law firm that has helped numerous retirees and senior investors recover their investment losses, whether lost due to fraud or Ponzi schemes, or just general negligent management of their nest egg by an investment professional. For over 25 years, Malecki Law’s investment loss recovery attorneys have provided legal representation to investors victimized by financial fraud. The firm’s founder, Jenice L. Malecki, Esq. has successfully recovered tens of millions of dollars for retiree and senior investors, and is a passionate advocate for serving the underrepresented, in particular senior victims of financial abuse. This is an area that has been continually prioritized in enforcement matters by national securities regulators such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as state regulators like the New Mexico Securities Division.

New Mexico’s Securities Division has been active in rooting out fraudsters who prey on the state’s investors and retirees. In February 2022, for example, the regulator announced that it was working in a coordinated enforcement action with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to put a stop to a fraudulent scheme that caused $68 million in lost investments. Hundreds of investors, from all over the U.S., including six investors in New Mexico were defrauded out of $2.2 million, were solicited by fraudsters to liquidate their portfolios at investment firms to fund investments in precious metals (e.g., bullion and bullion coins) through self-directed individual and retirement accounts. The defendants in the matter failed to disclose excessively high markup charges for their precious metals and bullion products, including that the investments could cause a loss to the majority of the invested principal.

Of course, it is a good thing that New Mexico has an active securities regulator; however, generally speaking, victims of financial fraud should not have the expectation that a regulatory investigation will make them financially whole. Malecki Law’s investment loss recovery attorneys understand the value of bringing a parallel civil lawsuit to any regulatory investigation, simply because regulatory investigations are long, opaque processes, where it is nearly impossible to monitor how, or if, they are proceeding towards eventual prosecution of the wrongdoer, let alone financial restitution of the victims. Our team also knows that regulatory investigations do not always seek to prosecute the full time period that the violations may have occurred. If the regulator is setting up a victim fund, this means that restitution may only comprise a small fraction of the investor’s losses, covering only the narrower time period under investigation. Regulators typically seek the “easy” win, so they will cut down the time period for the misconduct if that happens to be where the best evidence is. It is, therefore, critical for victimized investors to consider bringing a parallel civil lawsuit against the wrongdoers, especially against any financial firms that had a duty to supervise the accounts at issue.

Regulatory investigations often seek evidentiary documents and cooperation from investor victims, but this is not a “two-way street,” as they usually do not return the favor by sharing documents in return. Malecki Law’s investment loss recovery lawyers recognize that this is a big deal, since it can obscure the fact that there may be many other victims in the scheme. One investor losing money can give the appearance to a fact finder (e.g, a judge or arbitrator) that an investor was responsible for his or her own loss, chalking it up to a bad investment decision or having disregarded a disclosed risk, playing into a naturally human bias to blame the victim. However, documents showing two or more investors losing money start to point to evidence of a sophisticated scheme or broader wrongdoing, which will draw more sympathy from the finder of fact.

Speed of case resolution is another consideration for investor victims of fraud. In FINRA arbitration, for example, the forum where most retail securities disputes are required to take place, investor victims can expect their cases to be resolved within 12 to 15 months depending on the availability of arbitrators and the parties’ counsel, which is far faster than most regulatory investigations will conclude. Arbitration further has very few legal grounds to bring an appeal, whereas court proceedings can drag on for many years in lengthy appeals. Disabled and elderly investors are also likely to qualify for expedited proceedings in FINRA arbitration, which can bring a resolution even several months faster.

Hiring a knowledgeable investment loss recovery law firm, such as Malecki Law, is the first step towards assessing one’s options and recovering investment funds lost due to negligent firm supervision or other misconduct. Malecki Law has recovered tens of millions of dollars for investors from fraudsters and some of the largest financial firms (i.e., firms that would have had a supervisory duty over affected investment accounts). If you are a New Mexico retiree or senior investor who has lost money in the financial markets and would like a free consultation about potential fraud or whether your account was properly managed, please feel free to contact Jenice L. Malecki directly at (212) 943-1233, or by email at jenice@maleckilaw.com.