Case Description
New York filed a civil suit against UBS Financial Services, Inc., a leading brokerage firm, for defrauding thousands of its customers through its “InsightOne” brokerage program. According to the lawsuit, UBS conceived and carried out a scheme to move inappropriate clients from regular brokerage accounts into InsightOne, despite that program’s far higher costs for those investors, by falsely promoting InsightOne as providing personalized advice and other financial planning services. As a result of UBS’s fraudulent conduct, InsightOne customers paid tens of millions of dollars more in InsightOne fees than they would have paid in traditional brokerage account commissions. The lawsuit charged UBS with violations of state anti-fraud laws, as well as common law fraud and breaches of fiduciary duty. The complaint sought from UBS disgorgement, damages and restitution, as well as injunctive relief. Under the terms of the settlement, UBS will reimburse customers $21.3 million and pay a $2 million penalty for inappropriately steering customers into the fee-based accounts of its InsightOne brokerage program.
