Sales of private placements in Provident Royalties have put yet another broker/dealer of business. Securities Network LLC of Norcross, Ga., told the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in March of its plans to terminate its broker/dealer license.
As reported May 24 by Investment News, Securities Network was not a huge seller of private placements in Provident Royalties. According to a court filing, the company sold $215,000 of Provident’s preferred stock to investors.
The amount is minuscule compared to that of other firms that marketed and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of the product. In total, independent broker/dealers sold about $485 million of Provident private-placement offerings.
The list of broker/dealers that have shut down because of connections to sales involving Provident private placements, as well as another private-placement deal – Medical Capital Holdings – keeps getting bigger. Among the broker/dealers to shutter: GunnAllen Financial Inc., QA3 Financial Corp., Okoboji Financial Services, and Jesup & Lamont Securities Corp.
In 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged both Provident Royalties and Medical Capital Holdings with fraud. In its complaint against the two companies, the SEC alleged that both operated as Ponzi schemes.