Kurt Berry

Kurt Allen Berry, previously registered at Vanderbilt Securities and Regulus Advisors, is the subject of a six-figure investor suit alleging broker misconduct. Claimants allege that, while employed at Vanderbilt, Mr. Berry recommended and sold unsuitable investments in Resolute Capital Partners, LLC and Petrorock Mineral Holdings, LLC. The investments at issue are highly speculative and illiquid “alternative investments,” which are unregistered with the SEC.

Private placements like the Resolute/Petrorock investments may pose substantial risks to unwitting customers who invest in them. Some of those risks include:

• Misrepresentations as to safety: Brokers often promise investors their money will be safe, and they will receive a steady rate of return. This is often not true. Many alternative investments are less safe than blue chip stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
• Conflicts of interest: Brokers and investment professionals may have a substantial financial interest in selling private placements to investors. Often private placements pay commissions of 10% or more to the brokers who recommend them.
• Lack of liquidity: Investors may have difficulty redeeming or reselling their shares and may need to hold them indefinitely.
• Risk of total loss: Companies offering private placements are sometimes engaged in high-risk endeavors, exposing shareholders to potential risk of total loss of their investments.
• Limited price transparency: Because private placements are not publicly traded, there is no fair market value. The price on the statement reflecting principal value is often inflated compared to the true value.

Claimants allege that Mr. Berry and Vanderbilt represented the Resolute/Petrorock investments as a safe, income-generating, and tax-efficient alternative to the stock market without discussing the serious risks, which made them inconsistent with their investment objectives. Investors can read more about the pending claim on Mr. Berry’s BrokerCheck report, available here: https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4550773.

Brokerage firms and their registered representatives have a duty to only recommend suitable investments, disclose the associated risks, and always put their clients’ interests before their own. And firms must reasonably supervise the sales practices of the brokers they employ. If you lost money and believe you have been wronged by an investment professional, contact ChapmanAlbin for a free consultation.