FINRA panel finds that date for purposes of determining eligibility for arbitration is the investment purchase date.

The claimant filed an arbitration involving various allegations associated with the respondents’ recommendation of four high-risk illiquid investments. The four investments were purchased on August 4, 2004, December 8, 2005, June 5, 2007, and December 17, 2007. The Statement of Claim was filed on October 20, 2014, which was nearly seven to ten years after the investments at issue were purchased. The respondents filed a motion to dismiss for lack of eligibility under FINRA Rule 12206. In reaching their conclusion, the panel noted that the claimant received various documents at the times of purchase, which “disclosed that each of the investments were speculative with a high risk of loss and that there would be limited or no liquidity.” After oral argument, the panel dismissed the claimant’s claims, holding that “[t]he event giving rise to each alleged claim was the purchase of each investment, each of which was more than six years prior to the filing of the Statement of Claim.”

_{Case Law Alerts, 4^th Quarter, October 2015}

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