Berman DeValerio Files Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of Overcharged Investors
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The law firm of Berman DeValerio
announced today that it has filed a class action lawsuit against
FINRA-registered broker-dealer PrimeVest Financial Services,
Inc., its broker-dealer subsidiaries, Guaranty Brokerage
Services, Inc. and Bancnorth Investment Group, Inc.
(collectively, “PrimeVest”), and its owners, including ING
America Insurance Holdings, Inc. The complaint alleges that the
defendants illegally charged excessive front end sales charges
to customers and clients who purchased Class A mutual fund
shares, by failing to apply the proper and available breakpoints
to reduce the sales charges, and pocketed most of the
overcharge.
Berman DeValerio (www.bermandevalerio.com)
and co-counsel Gustafson Gluek PLLC (www.gustafsongluek.com)
and Czuchry Law Firm, LLC (www.meclawfirm.com)
filed the complaint on February 24, 2010 in the Stearns County
District Court in the State of Minnesota on behalf of all
customers or clients of PrimeVest who paid an excessive
front-end sales charge due to PrimeVest’s failure to properly
apply any and all possible breakpoint discounts during the
period from December 24, 2002 through the present (the “Class
Period”).
The complaint alleges that PrimeVest charged the plaintiffs
$17,187.14 in sales charges on the mutual fund shares they
purchased, an overcharge of $4,980.37, by failing to give the
plaintiffs the benefit of the breakpoint discounts they were
entitled to receive due to rights of accumulation. The action
seeks to recover losses under common law and provisions of
Minnesota’s consumer protection statutes.
“We believe that many customers of PrimeVest and other
broker-dealers were overcharged in the same way as our clients,
when they made multiple purchases of mutual fund shares, and did
not get the benefit of the breakpoint discount,” said Peter A.
Pease, a partner in Berman DeValerio’s Boston office. “Customers
who are making purchases for family members and themselves as
part of their estate planning, college funding or distribution
of business assets are the most likely to be denied breakpoint
discounts because their broker-dealer failed to apply the
available and proper rights of accumulation.”
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