Park Place Surgical Hospital's employees presented Miles Perret Cancer Services with a check for $2,920. The Employee Council raised money selling T-shirts, hats, stuffed teddy bears and other items throughout the year. Members of the council include ...
Amy Castro has joined IberiaBank as branch manager for the recently opened Settlers Trace location in River Ranch. The Abbeville native has more than a decade of banking experience, most recently serving as branch manager/vice president for Capital One ...
From blues and rock to funk and punk, here's the rundown of prime CD box sets for your favorite music lover this holiday season.Various ArtistsWhat It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves from the Vaults of Atlantic, Atco & Warner Bros. Records (Rhino)In a ...
As Louisianans count down to the Jan. 1 enactment of the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act, many area restaurants are already protecting their patrons and employees from health effects of secondhand smoke exposure with voluntary 100 percent smoke-free policies ...
After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, 32 former Exxon employees received a near-record award from the broker they say swindled them.Together, they make up about a quarter of a 32-plaintiff group of former Exxon employees granted one of the largest awards ever given, $22 million, by the National Association of Securities Dealers arbitrators. They are pipefitters and managers. Widows and cancer survivors. Husbands, wives and parents. They are the salt of the earth. They didn't want a lavish retirement, just enough money to live and leave some for the kids. And, of course, maybe get a fishing boat. Instead, they lost it all ' homes, property and hope. They lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with little explanation beyond "Don't worry, it'll come back." They went back to work and told their children they were bored, not that their retirement checks had stopped coming. They are a snapshot of still-to-be-determined number of people who trusted Securities America and its broker, David McFadden, a man who played loose and fast with their money while filling his own coffers with fees and commissions. They could be you. Bradley Simon is low maintenance personified. He worked for Exxon more than three decades as an operations controller and never so much as opened a checking account. When payday rolled around, he'd cash his check and pay his bills with money orders. He provided for his wife and three children, rarely buying himself something he didn't need. "You know what you're worth without a damned new truck," says the 63-year-old Abbeville native who rarely minces words. Simon looked to return to work at Exxon after beating prostate cancer in 1997. He speaks highly of how the company treats longtime employees and feels he could have left his shift work for a day job with Exxon. But that idea didn't appeal to Simon, who found himself hearing a pretty desirable pitch from McFadden, who treated potential clients to a free lunch seminar at Drusilla Seafood in Baton Rouge. "I went to one of those damn seminars he had," says Simon. "He said, 'What are you doing working? I can make you more money at home than you can at work.'" A recurring theme that came out through arbitration was the promise that a 10 percent return on an investment was a "no-brainer," and if McFadden couldn't deliver his clients a 10 percent to 14 percent return, they should fire him. Through his attorney, McFadden declined to be interviewed for this story. The National Association of Securities Dealers charged McFadden with securities fraud in September; Securities America continued to employ the broker for more than four months after the May verdict, when McFadden was allowed to resign. Simon retired in 1998 ' the same year he had two successful heart bypasses ' and invested more than $700,000 with McFadden and Securities America. When he began losing money at an alarming rate, Simon contacted McFadden, warning him not to let the account fall below $400,000. Each sign of concern was met with the answer that a plan was in place and things were going to be OK. "He had a plan," says Simon. "His plan was to fleece our f ...
Fred Werner attended the second annual Top Advisors Summit hosted by Barron's magazine and R.J. Shook, author of The Winner's Circle books rating Americas' top financial advisers. The invitation-only conference was held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Sept ...
A budget that counts on private investment could count out completing the Connector any time soon ...
Drago's set to take over the location in August ...
We need to face up to how the “new New Orleans,” so celebrated by the Mayor and the self-anointed civic elite, in fact amounts to a hostile assault on African-American families and the working poor ...
Six candidates vie for permanent job; no timeline released for selection process ...
