Investor Update: William Heiden and Unsuitable Oil and Gas Investment Claims

Stoltmann Law Offices continues to investigate William Heiden, a Wedbush Securities registered broker, who has been subject to nine customer complaints. Allegedly, Mr. Heiden, according to a claim filed in June 2017, breached his fiduciary duty, committed violation of industry rules, and financial elder abuse causing $855,299 in losses. The claim is currently pending. He was also previously accused of making unsuitable investments in a client’s account causing $950,718 in losses. Some of the recommendations were in oil and gas investments. Before a broker can recommend or sell a security such as this, he must do his due diligence on the security in order to determine that it is suitable and appropriate for the client, by taking into account his age, net worth, investment sophistication and investment risk tolerance, among other factors. If he does not, his brokerage firm may be liable for losses on a contingency fee basis. The brokerage firm has a duty to reasonably supervise its employees.

Oil and gas and energy investments can be highly illiquid and risky investments, because of the drop in the price of oil since last year. Many investors have lost money because of unsuitable placements by their brokers in these investments. William Mark Heiden was previously registered with Crowell, Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles, California from June 1997 until September 2000, Sutro & Co. in San Francisco, California from September 2000 until March 2002, RBC Dain Rauscher in Newport Beach, California from March 2002 until April 2007, Morgan Stanley in Newport Beach from April 2007 until June 2009 and Morgan Stanley in Newport Beach from June 2009 until August 2013. He is currently registered with Wedbush Securities in Newport Beach and has been since August 2013. He has nine customer disputes against him, two of which are currently pending. This is according to his online, BrokerCheck report with FINRA. It is public record.