The Two Faces of Merrill Lynch Stock Advice

Sometime in 2001, Merrill Lynch was found to have been publicly promoting investments that they had ridiculed in private. Regulators suspect that these false statements were made to secure investment banking deals with the companies whose stock was being advocated.

One of these clients is believed to be Enron. In 1998, the Merrill Lynch analyst responsible for the downgrade of Enron's stock appraisal resigned, the stock was upgraded, and the two companies made deals for profitable stock offerings. Some of the schemes caused debt to disappear, or to never appear, in Enron's books, and other schemes created artificial profits. Click here to read the SEC's charges against Merrill Lynch and Enron.

Some of the Merrill Lynch stock fraud suits target specific individual employees—such as analyst Henry Blodgett, whose bad investment advice sparked Merrill Lynch stock fraud investigations that examined analysts’ internal emails with their public stock recommendations. Click here to read the emails between Blodgett and other Merrill Lynch employees.

After a thorough investigation by Elliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, Merrill Lynch has reached a settlement including fines and promises to correct the fraudulent practices.

If you have purchased shares in any of the following stocks from Merrill Lynch, you may have a potential stock fraud claim. Contact the Consumer Justice Group immediately for an evaluation of your case.

The Investment & Stock Fraud News is a service of the Consumer Justice Group.