The Securities Law Firm of Menzer & Hill, P.A. Files a $1.5 Million Whistleblower Claim Against Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

The Securities Law Firm of Menzer & Hill, P.A. www.suemyadvisor.com, announced today it filed an arbitration claim against Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (“RJA”), (NYSE: RJF) on behalf of a former Operations Manager.

The claim alleges that the Claimant, while serving as an Operations Manager for one of RJA’s California branch offices, consistently reported on a series of inappropriate and violative sales practices by the branch manager, and certain other financial advisors of the branch office to regional management,
senior management and home office compliance department. Some of the alleged violations included unsuitable trading and churning in accounts of elderly customers, failure to respond to exception reports, unapproved seminar speaking, misuse of marketing funds and mismarking trade confirmations.

Claimant was then terminated and allegedly defamed on his Form U5 in alleged retaliation for threatening to speak to regulators.

Michael Hill, Managing Partner with the Securities Law Firm of Menzer & Hill, P.A. says, “one would think that given Raymond James’ and its affiliates’ regulatory history of supervisory failures, according to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, that it would act on compliance reports from its field force and increase its compliance posture to protect the investing public.”

For a free case evaluation or to discuss this matter, please contact the Securities Law Firm of Menzer & Hill, P.A. at 888-923-9223, or visit us on the web at www.suemyadvisor.com.

Will former media mogul Conrad Black end up going back to prison?

A status hearing Thursday in Chicago isn't expected to answer that question definitively. But it could provide clues about what U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve's inclined to do.

After serving two years of a 6 1/2-year sentence, Black was released from a Florida prison last year pending appeal.

An appeals court in October reversed two of the 66-year-old's fraud convictions. It cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling curtailing "honest services."

But it let stand a fraud and obstruction of justice conviction. Judge St. Eve's options include resentencing Black or freeing him for good based on time served.

Among the steps she could take Thursday is scheduling a resentencing date.

A New Jersey Supreme Court justice who refused to participate in all decisions while a temporary judge is assigned to the bench has tempered his protest.

Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto said in an opinion published Wednesday that he will issue decisions in cases in which Judge Edwin Stern participates, so long as the judge's vote doesn't affect the outcome.

Rivera-Soto said he'll continue to defer a decision to vote in cases where Stern's position changes the outcome.

Rivera-Soto maintains it's unconstitutional to have a temporary justice on the court when a quorum of five is present. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner appointed Stern to fill a vacancy that occurred when Gov. Chris Christie did not reappoint Justice John Wallace in May, leaving the seven-member court one member short.

Democrats who control the state Senate have refused to consider Christie's choice to replace Wallace, corporate lawyer Anne Patterson.

Rivera-Soto recently announced his plans to step down rather than seek renomination when his term expires in September. It was doubtful that the justice, who was reprimanded by the court in 2007 for intervening in a conflict between his son and another student at Haddonfield Memorial High School, would have been renominated.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who has been among Rivera-Soto's harshest critics, said Wednesday that the justice is unfit to serve.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black has approved a previously disclosed $179 million settlement and entered a final judgment in a dispute between AK Steel and retirees at its Butler, Pa., steel plant.

The AK Steel retirees had filed a class-action lawsuit in June 2009 to stop the company from making changes to their health insurance benefits. It had started making retirees pay a portion of their premiums in January 2010.

West Chester-based AK Steel is the largest Dayton-area company, with more than $4 billion in revenue.

Under the terms of the settlement, AK Steel will continue to pay for the benefits through 2014 and also pay $91 million to two trusts to cover future benefits for hourly and salaries retirees.

In return, the company has been relieved of liability for any benefits after 2014, and the lawsuit was dismissed.

Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox will join Detroit-based Dykema Gossett PLLC as a senior attorney in its litigation department, the law firm CEO confirmed today.

Cox, 49, who ended eight years as the state's chief law enforcement officer on Jan. 1, starts next Monday at Dykema's Detroit office. He will practice in health care fraud, white-collar criminal law and federal and state regulatory compliance, said Dykema Chairman and CEO Rex Schlaybaugh.

Schlaybaugh said the firm leadership had talked with Cox for more than a month about his options upon leaving office. The attorney general seemed a good fit because of his involvement in health care transactions and the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted last year.

"Mike is someone with a great deal of experience with the complexities of implementing that law and a great interest in it, which will be very important to some of our strategic clients," Schlaybaugh said.

"Many federal and state government agencies are also involved in aspects of these laws, and navigating that will be a high-demand area. In that way, I think he dovetails with our firm's needs very nicely."

Cox's health care practice will focus on client responses to increased compliance and tougher anti-fraud policies stemming from the Affordable Care Act, violations of the federal Stark Law or False Claims Act and responses to inquiries from the Office of the Health Services inspector general.