The following article was written by Benjamin Haynes, Esq.
Jason Terry has filed a 24-page complaint in Federal Court against former financial advisor William C. Crafton. Terry has also named Suntrust Bank, Martin Kelly Capital Management, Adam Fein, and CSI Capital Management as Defendants in the complaint. The complaint states that Terry’s financial advisors cost him $2.4 million by putting his money into risky investments, some of which were Ponzi schemes. Terry specifically states that Crafton held himself out as a financial advisor and money manager with 20 years of experience handling the income of several professional football, baseball and hockey players. Jason alleges that he relied upon these misrepresentations of Crafton.
Terry claims the defendants “did not invest plaintiff’s money in safe investments and did not provide high-quality wealth management services, but rather misappropriated his funds for Crafton’s personal use; invested plaintiff’s money in illiquid, high risk, alternative investments; invested plaintiff’s money in Ponzi schemes run by his friends and colleagues and/or transferred and/or commingled plaintiff’s money among other investors and athletes whom Crafton represented to prevent them from discovering Crafton’s frauds, schemes and poor investment strategy as well as plaintiff’s financial losses.”
Terry says that he did not know about all of these poor investments until November 2010, when he reviewed an investment account statement and noticed that one of his largest investments was listed as “pending litigation.”
The complaint states that Crafton specifically told Terry that he could get out of the investments at any time, because each investment he placed Terry in was a “very safe, liquid asset.”
The complaint goes on to read, “However, contrary to his [Crafton’s] express representations, defendant Crafton placed plaintiff in high-risk, alternative investments, which were Ponzi schemes or other fraudulent investments run, managed, controlled, operated and/or created by individuals with whom Crafton had a personal relationship, business dealings or kickback agreements. These investments were unsuitable and illiquid and Crafton had some financial interest and undisclosed relationship with each investment that was never disclosed to plaintiff.”
Terry’s complaint includes a total of 13-Counts, including three counts under the Securities Exchange Act; bad faith breaches of fiduciary duty; fraudulent misrepresentation; willful breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing; negligence; negligent supervision/training, and negligent hiring.
Terry seeks management fees and ill-gotten gains and punitive damages for misrepresentation, mismanagement, fraud, omissions, concealment, negligence, lack of supervision, breach of fiduciary duty and other wrongful conduct.