Jeffrey Cohen Allegedly Recommends Unsuitable Alternative Investments

The law firm of Oakes & Fosher is presently investigating the alleged misconduct of securities broker Jeffrey Cohen. According to his publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report, Jeffrey Cohen has been the subject of multiple customer disputes over the course of his career.

Jeffrey Cohen is a Missouri based securities broker. He has worked in the securities industry for thirteen years. During his career, he has been registered with five different securities firms.

His Registrations 

• Intersecurities (1994-2000)


• NFP Securities (2000-2001)


• Financial West Group (2013-2014)


• Western International Securities (2015)


• Moloney Securities (2015-Present)

The Allegations

• In June 2001, a customer alleged that Jeffrey Cohen made intentional misrepresentations, made neglectful misrepresentations, and breached his fiduciary duty. This case was settled for $320,000 in damages.


• In August 2019, a customer alleged that Jeffrey Cohen recommended they purchase alternative investments that were highly unsuitable for them. This case is currently pending. The customer is seeking $3 million in damages.


• Also in August 2019, another customer alleged that Jeffrey Cohen placed them in highly unsuitable alternative investments. This case is currently pending. The customer is seeking $2 million in damages.


• In February 2020, a customer alleged that Jeffrey Cohen recommended highly unsuitable securities. This case is currently pending. The customer is seeking $200,000 in damages.


• In March 2020, another customer alleged that Jeffrey Cohen recommended unsuitable investments. This case is currently pending. The customer is seeking $700,000 in damages.

What Does This Mean?

The term alternative investments is used to describe privately traded investment funds not sold on any public securities exchanges. These types of investments can be very harmful to investors due to their associated risk, illquidity, and extremely high cost structure. Their illiquidity is a direct result of their private nature. Publicly traded equities have a guaranteed redemption which means that investors can liquidate their shares for the stated value at any moment. However, investors in these alternative investments are not so lucky. Those managing these private investment funds usually want to hang onto cash infused for as long as possible to fund operations. Because of this, only a finite amount of buyouts are usually offered in scheduled increments. Also, investors are almost always offered buy out offers substantially less than what they are told their shares are valued at. These alternative investments are mostly recommended out of significant conflicts of interest that arise because of the excessively high commissions brokers receive when recommending these products. These commissions can be as high as ten percent of the investor's principal investment. These commissions, compounded with other upfront fees, can drain an investor's principal of as much as 17 percent. When an investor's principal is drained that substantially, seeing any investment returns becomes highly improbable under anything other than booming market conditions.

Oakes & Fosher Can Help

Many investors are unaware of the legal recourse available to them after losing money due to securities broker fraud and/or negligence. The truth is that investors who have lost money in this fashion may actually be entitled to damages.

Oakes & Fosher dedicates its entire legal practice to helping investors across the nation. If you, or someone you know, have lost money investing with Jeffrey Cohen, please contact Oakes & Fosher for a free and private consultation. Oakes & Fosher handles cases on a contingency basis, which means there are no fees charged unless we collect for you.