Investors have to weigh risks, and that’s hard enough to do when companies, industries and markets are on a level playing field. When fraud is involved and tilts the playing field in one side’s favor, the risk of making a bad investment increases.
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $4 billion in penalties and repayment of ill-gotten gains. Also in 2016, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority levied $173.8 million in fines and ordered $27.9 million in restitution to harmed investors.
So that you don’t become a victim of investment fraud, we asked experts about suspicious signs to watch for, as well as what you should do if you suspect fraud.
Pushy brokers who want you to invest now. Investment fraud isn’t just reserved for big-name companies that make headlines. It can also involve brokers selling investments that are wrong for a client, or so complicated that investors don’t understand them, says Alma Angotti, a managing director in the global investigations and compliance practice at Navigant Consulting.
[See: 8 Things to Consider When Choosing an Online Broker.]
Your first line of defense is to understand your salesperson. “The true con artists are very charming,” Angotti says.
One way to do this is to use FINRA’s BrokerCheck website to research the background of investment professionals or firms. Check if the broker or the firm has been part of any disciplinary action, Angotti says. Investors can also check with state securities regulators, local consumer and investment groups and use tools such as the financial advisor finder from U.S. News, which includes certifications and disclosures of each advisor.
Be skeptical of a salesperson with a sense of urgency who tells you that everybody’s buying a product or that now is the time to get in on a hot investment, she says. Another red flag is if someone says an investment, other than a certificate of deposit, has guaranteed returns, she says.
Sometimes brokers will have free lunch seminars with some swag like a tote bag. Although these seminars aren’t a sign of fraud, beware of the subtle pressure to reciprocate, she says.
Financials that smell fishy. Fraud is hard for the average investor to spot at public companies that are cooking their books, Angotti says. After all, this is the realm of pros at the SEC.
Plus, financial fraud has been growing more complex, says Harris Devor, an auditor and partner at New York-based accounting, tax and business consulting firm Friedman LLP. A relatively simple fraud might involve a company reporting revenue that it hadn’t actually earned yet, he says. Identifying fraud related to mortgage-backed securities, like the kind that helped create the financial crisis, is harder to do, he says.
Still, you can take several steps to check out an investment, he says. One is studying how competitive the industry is where you’re thinking of investing, he says. The more competitive it is, the more incentive some businesses might have for committing fraud, he says.
Also, look at a company’s track record of meeting analysts’ profit estimates compared with their peers, he says. If a company is barely meeting estimates one period after the next while similar companies in the industry are missing theirs, “that may be an indication that something funny is going on,” he says.
[See: 10 Skills the Best Investors Have.]
Investors should also consider whether a company frequently uses its stock as a currency for transactions, such as buying other companies, and whether management might have an incentive to make performance look better than it is because executive pay is linked to company profits, he says.
Of course, these things don’t guarantee that fraud is taking place, but each added component can increase the risk that something is amiss, he says. In fact, professional auditors take these factors into consideration when assessing the potential for fraudulent financial statements, he says.
Micro caps with a history of unrelated businesses. At public companies, a big source of fraud is micro-cap stocks, such as those traded over the counter, Angotti says. Micro-cap stocks aren’t as transparent as those that trade on a big exchange and can be difficult to evaluate.
A few things, though, should give you pause, she says. One is if the company has a history of doing several unrelated things. Maybe the company’s primary business was mining in one iteration and technology in another. That could mean the company is a shell and may not have any real business, she says. “It might mean nothing, but it’s something that you need to ask about,” she says.
Another suspicious sign is if a company’s officers and directors also serve in a similar capacity at many other micro-cap companies, she says. Often, when people commit fraud, they do it through several vehicles at the same time, she says.
What if you suspect fraud or are a victim? An investor who suspects fraud at a company should first discuss those concerns with an accountant, Devor says. Other options include talking to your investment advisor, calling analysts who cover the company and asking questions or hiring a lawyer that specializes in fraud cases, he says. Of course, you could always just sell your shares, he notes.
If you suspect a broker has defrauded you, your first call should be to the compliance officer at the brokerage, Angotti says. Reasonable firms will look into the matter, and if the broker sold you something unsuitable, the company may make you whole, she says. That can save you a lot of expense than if you tried to resolve the matter first through a lawyer.
[Read: Why Your Financial Service Agreement Includes Arbitration.]
If the matter should be pursued further, report it to regulators. “The SEC has open lines of communication with investors who believe they’ve been defrauded,” Devor says. Sometimes, regulators can get money returned to individual investors, Angotti says. But you may not get everything back if “the bad guys have frittered it away.”
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Watch Out For These Red Flags While Investing originally appeared on usnews.com
