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Recent Cases: Retiree recovers full loss plus fees and punitive damages for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. |
In the late 1990s, Mr. Gresham retired after working for many years at a detergent factory in Augusta, Georgia. Having no investment experience, he turned to A.G. Edwards for investment advice on how best to invest his retirement funds from his former employer. His account at A.G. Edwards was handled by the branch manager, William Gibbs, and his assistant, Susan Saccone. Although Respondents told Mr. Gresham that they intended to invest his account using the Dow Strategy, a known investment strategy that involves investing in certain "out of favor" Dow stocks and holding them for at least a year, they never followed the Dow Strategy in Mr. Gresham's account. Instead, Mr. Gresham ended up substantially invested in aggressive technology stocks. As a result, he lost a significant portion of his retirement funds. The arbitrators appointed by the NYSE to hear the case agreed that Mr. Gresham had been a victim of fraud and that the Respondents breached their fiduciary duty to Mr. Gresham. As such, they awarded Mr. Gresham actual damages of $284,908.43; attorneys' fees of $239,717.95, costs of $25,000 and punitive damages of $400,000. Ed Dovin and Sandra Malkin served as lead counsel for Mr. Gresham and over 130 other similarly-situated claimants. |
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