Portell v. Zayed
Opinion of the Court
A group of self-described mom and pop investors brought a class action complaint in DuPage County Circuit Court against the defendants for breach of fiduciary duty in connection with investments in a mutual fund called "KZSIX." The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to disclose their conflicts of interest relating to the fund, misrepresented KZSIX's susceptibility to market downturns, and transferred the plaintiffs' investments into KZSIX without the investors' affirmative and informed consent to do so. As a result of being invested in KZSIX, the investors allegedly lost millions of dollars and incurred fees that were far greater than industry norms. The defendants removed the case to this Court, contending that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act ("SLUSA") requires both removal and dismissal of the lawsuit. Eight of the nine plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their claims without prejudice. Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, ECF No. 22. The remaining plaintiff, Theresa Portell, moved to remand, arguing that the lawsuit is based upon the mismanagement of an existing investment, not, as would be required for SLUSA preclusion, any material misrepresentation that induced investors to purchase, sell, or hold a security. Because the alleged misrepresentations and omissions of material facts are a linchpin of this suit and were made in connection with the purchase of the KZSIX shares, this case falls squarely within the ambit of SLUSA preclusion. Portell's motion to remand, ECF No. 17, is therefore denied and the defendants are granted leave to refile their motion to dismiss, *1029as to which the Court deferred consideration pending resolution of the remand motion.
BACKGROUND
Portell invested funds with defendant Brookstone Capital Management, LLC ("BCM"), of which defendant Nadim Khalil "Dean" Zayed serves as president and CEO. Portell contends that BCM and Zayed owed her a duty to, among other things, "provide full and fair disclosure of all material facts" and "[d]isclose all conflicts of interest that might incline them, consciously or unconsciously, to render advice that is not disinterested." Notice of Removal Under
Before August 10, 2015, Portell's funds were invested in BCM's ZEGA High-Probability Options Strategy ("HiPOS"). In 2014, Zayed formed defendant Kaizen Advisory ("Kaizen") and created a mutual fund called the "Kaizen Hedged Premium Spreads Fund" ("KZSIX"). Zayed owns at least 95% of Kaizen and is the sole beneficial owner of BCM. At all relevant times to this lawsuit Zayed was the "beneficial controlling person" of both BCM and Kaizen.
Portell alleges that the defendants "promoted" the KZSIX fund to its HiPOS clients, Compl. ¶ 76, and transferred client assets into the fund to enrich themselves rather than their clients. More specifically, the complaint alleges that BCM (and by extension Zayed) incurred trading expenses under HiPOS, but the structure of the KZSIX investment allowed them to push those expenses onto the fund investors. Investing in the KZSIX fund also allowed Zayed to obtain additional fees from fund investors because he was able to "double-dip" by obtaining fees from both BCM and Kaizen due to his ownership of both entities.
The defendants allegedly failed to disclose these conflicts arising from Zayed's ownership of both BCM and Kaizen to Portell and the other HiPOS investors before executing the KZSIX transactions. And investors who bought shares of KZSIX, she maintains, "could not have discovered the conflicts of interest of BCM, Kaizen Advisory, and Zayed inherent in their KZSIX transactions through a reasonable inquiry or inspection."Id. ¶¶ 112, 124, 135. The complaint alleges that Zayed and BCM breached the fiduciary duties they owed to their HiPOS investors by "concealing [their] conflicts of interest from Plaintiffs at all times" and "[f]ailing to receive affirmative informed consent from Plaintiffs and the Class to waive" those conflicts.
The complaint defines the proposed class to include "[a]ll persons who were investment advisory clients of [BCM] at some point from August 1, 2015 until August 20, 2015; were invested in [HiPOS] prior to August 3, 2015; and held shares in [KZSIX] as of August 20, 2015."
DISCUSSION
I. SLUSA Preclusion
The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act ("SLUSA") requires that covered class actions based upon state law that allege fraudulent conduct in connection with the purchase or sale of a covered security be removed from state to federal court and dismissed. 15 U.S.C. § 77p(b) - (c) ; see also 15 U.S.C. § 77bb(f)(1)-(2). In 1995, Congress passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act ("PSLRA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 77z-1 and 78u-4, which imposed heightened pleading requirements in securities fraud actions. See 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4(b). Congress then enacted SLUSA to authorize removal (and require dismissal) of covered class actions alleging securities fraud filed in state court in order to "prevent plaintiffs from migrating to state court in order to evade rules for federal securities litigation in [the PSLRA]." Brown v. Calamos ,
SLUSA provides:
No covered class action based upon the statutory or common law of any State or subdivision thereof may be maintained in any State or Federal court by any private party alleging-
(1) an untrue statement or omission of a material fact in connection with the purchase or sale of a covered security; or
(2) that the defendant used or employed any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in connection with the purchase or sale of a covered security.
15 U.S.C. § 77p(b) ; see also 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(1). Subsection (c) further provides:
Any covered class action brought in any State court involving a covered security, as set forth in subsection (b), shall be removable to the Federal district court for the district in which the action is pending, and shall be subject to subsection (b).
15 U.S.C. § 77p(c) ; see also 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(2). Portell does not dispute that *1031her lawsuit qualifies as a "covered class action," that her claims are based upon state law, or that the securities at issue qualify as "covered" securities. See Pls.' Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for Remand ("Mem.") 6, ECF No. 18. The question for the Court's consideration is therefore limited to whether the complaint alleges "an untrue statement or omission of a material fact in connection with the purchase or sale of a covered security." 15 U.S.C. § 77p(b)(1) ; see also 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(1)(A).
SLUSA "is designed to prevent persons injured by securities transactions from engaging in artful pleading or forum shopping in order to evade limits on securities litigation that are designed to block frivolous or abusive suits." Holtz v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. ,
Accordingly, any claims, regardless of their labels, relating to a purchase or sale of a covered security "that depend on the nondisclosure of material facts must proceed under the federal securities laws exclusively." Holtz ,
II. Alleged Misrepresentations and Omissions of Material Fact
The complaint plainly alleges, and the "breach of fiduciary duty" theories *1033heavily rely on, misrepresentations and omissions of material fact by the defendants, starting with and arising from their failure to disclose conflicts related to Zayed's ownership of both BCM and Kaizen. A central premise of the complaint is that the defendants "had numerous undisclosed conflicts," ¶ 2 (emphasis added), and that as a consequence they never received "affirmative informed consent" to waive those conflicts, ¶ 110(a), and invested in KZSIX without "authority" to do so, ¶ 110(d). To have "authority" to make the KXSIX transfers, the defendants would have had to "make a full disclosure," id. ¶ 45; the claim that the investors failed to provide informed consent is necessarily a nondisclosure claim, see Goldberg , 846 F.3d at 920 (Flaum, J., concurring) ("to have 'authorized' the fees, the Bank would have had to have disclosed them to him; so the 'authorization' claim was still fundamentally tied to a material misrepresentation or omission"). In addition, Zayed was allegedly motivated to engineer the transfer of investments from HiPOS to KZSIX (and presumably also motivated to omit sharing details about his alleged conflicts) because he was able to "double-dip" when earning fees from both BCM and Kaizen on funds invested in KZSIX due to his ownership of both entities. Zayed also was allegedly driven by a desire to push trading expenses onto the putative class members and test the viability of the KZSIX fund before promoting it to prospective clients. Portell further alleges that KZSIX was more susceptible to market volatility than BCM represented it to be. These alleged misrepresentations and disclosure omissions fall well within the ambit of SLUSA preclusion because "[a] fiduciary that makes a securities trade without disclosing a conflict of interest violates federal securities law. Likewise, a broker-dealer that fails to achieve best execution for a customer by arranging a trade whose terms favor the dealer rather than the client has a securities problem, not just a state-law contract or fiduciary-duty problem." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 932 (internal citation omitted); see also Goldberg , 846 F.3d at 916 ("A claim that a fiduciary that trades in securities for a customer's account has taken secret side payments is well inside the bounds of securities law.").
Portell contends in her reply brief that even if the complaint alleges misrepresentations and omissions, those misrepresentations and omissions are not material. Pls.' Reply in Supp. of Mot. for Remand ("Reply") passim , ECF No. 27. "An omission is 'material' when a reasonable investor would deem it significant to an investment decision." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 934. Portell's contention regarding the immateriality of her own allegations is impossible to square with her theory of the case. Her claims are grounded in allegations that the defendants' failures to accurately represent information, such as Zayed's conflicts of interest and KZSIX's ability to withstand market downturns, duped the investors into going along with the KZSIX transaction and had a materially negative effect on their investments. Cf. Holtz , 846 F.3d at 934 ("[The plaintiff] herself deems the [defendant]'s incentives material to investments; that's the basis of this suit."). In fact, Portell expressly describes at least some aspects of Zayed's conflict of interest as material: "Zayed benefitted from the payment of both advisory fees and fund management fees from Plaintiffs and the Class. This is a material conflict of interest ...." Compl. ¶ 84 (emphasis added). Where, as here, misrepresentations and omissions concerning the defendants' alleged conflicts of interest constitute the foundation of the plaintiff's claim for relief, they are plainly material.
*1034III. "In Connection with"
To fall within SLUSA's ambit, the relevant misstatements and omissions must have been made "in connection with" the purchase or sale of a covered security. It is as to this requirement that Portell makes her principal stand. She says that her complaint is limited to an assertion that the defendants "mismanaged an existing investment rather than induc[ed] any action whether to purchase, sell, or hold a security." Mem. 2. The defendants, she maintains, "were negligent in implementing a complex strategy that they were not qualified to employ in order to maximize fees rather than return on Plaintiff's investment." Id. As a threshold matter, even that description belies the negligence characterization Portell ascribes to her claims, because it concedes that the defendants were engaged in an undisclosed scheme to maximize their fees rather than the return to their investors. That's intentional conduct that sounds in fraud, not negligence; Portell alleges not that the defendants acted inadvertently but that the defendants acted for their own benefit without telling the investors that they were doing so.
More importantly, Portell's contention that "these claims simply boil down to Defendants['] negligence in employing a complex investment scheme," Mem. 7, ignores that the putative class members were not invested in that scheme until the defendants transferred their investments from another fund. Those transfers are alleged in the complaint to have been effected on the basis of misrepresentations and omissions (i.e. , fraud). To invest the putative class members' money in the KZSIX fund, the defendants had to sell the investment in HiPOS and purchase shares in the KZSIX fund. Portell has not disputed that the securities that the defendants sold to exit the HiPOS investment or the securities purchased to enter the KZSIX investment were covered securities. Indeed, Portell alleges that KZSIX was an "open fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940," Compl. ¶ 53, which meets the statutory definition of a covered security under SLUSA, see 15 U.S.C. § 77r(b)(2) ("A security is a covered security if such security is a security issued by an investment company that is registered ... under the Investment Company Act of 1940."). Portell's unsupported contention that "[t]here is no allegation in the Complaint regarding the purchase or sale of a security," Reply 1, is simply wrong. Although the putative class members did not personally place the KZSIX transaction, the defendants placed it as their agent after giving them the option to opt out. Defs.' Resp., Ex. A, July Letter, ECF No. 26-1 ("If you accept this change there is nothing that you need to do as the account will automatically move to the KZSIX fund. Should you not want this change, please contact your Investment Advisor Representative to discuss other investment options."). "[T]he 'in connection with' requirement is satisfied when a broker makes a purchase or sale as an investor's agent." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 934 ; see also Dabit ,
The alleged misrepresentations and omissions here were "made in connection with an impending investment decision." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 933. The complaint alleges that Zayed concealed his conflicts of interests from the investors "at all times" and that, specifically, Zayed had failed to make a full disclosure "[w]hen Zayed entered the trades for KZSIX on behalf of" the investors. Compl. ¶¶ 45, 110, 122, 132 (emphasis added). And the July 2015 letter that contained various representations relating to the KZSIX investment-including *1035representations regarding KZSIX's ability mitigate losses during a market decline, which Portell alleges were untrue, see Compl. ¶ 101-was sent to the investors about a month before the impending August 2015 KZSIX investment. Moreover, regardless of the timing of the alleged misrepresentations and omissions, the Supreme Court has interpreted the "in connection with" language of § 77p(b)(2) broadly, holding that even a decision to hold a security qualifies if the decision to continue holding the security is affected by the alleged fraud. Dabit ,
This case is readily distinguished from Gavin v. AT & T Corp. ,
*1036Portell's argument that the complaint doesn't allege that she was induced to invest in KZSIX takes us back to SLUSA's imperviousness to artful pleading. Portell contends that hers is really a negligence claim because it does not plead reliance and so would not support a securities fraud action under § 10(b) and Rule 10(b)(5). As noted above, supra at 8 n.6, that argument holds no water; "a plaintiff cannot sidestep SLUSA by omitting allegations of scienter or reliance." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 930. SLUSA preclusion does not turn on whether federal law provides a cause of action. The Supreme Court expressly held in Dabit that SLUSA precludes not only state law class-action claims brought by plaintiffs who have a private remedy under federal law, but "also pre-empts state-law class-action claims for which federal law provides no remedy."
SLUSA therefore authorizes removal of the complaint and the motion to remand is therefore denied. Portell's attempt to double-down on her remand motion by asserting that she should also be awarded fees because the removal was objectively unreasonable itself borders on the frivolous and is denied.
IV. Dismissal
The Court previously denied the defendants' motion to dismiss without prejudice to first address the remand motion, but denial of the remand motion seemingly also requires dismissal of this action. Title 15 Subsection 77p(c) authorizes removal when the lawsuit meets the criteria set forth in Subsection 77p(b), which requires dismissal. Having concluded that the allegations in the complaint meet the criteria set forth in Subsection (b), "neither the district court nor the state *1037court may entertain [the action], and the proper course is to dismiss." Kircher v. Putnam Funds Trust ,
The dismissal required, moreover, is with prejudice. The Seventh Circuit has taken a skeptical view of dismissals that permit amendment of the complaint to remove allegations that would implicate the issue of whether there had been misrepresentations or omissions made in connection with the purchase or sale of securities, recognizing that "almost all federal securities suits could be recharacterized as contract suits about the securities involved." Holtz , 846 F.3d at 930-31. In Brown , the court of appeals further noted the problem with allowing amendments to SLUSA-precluded complaints:
[O]nce the case shorn of its fraud allegations resumes in the state court, the plaintiff-who must have thought the allegations added something to his case, as why else had he made them?-may be sorely tempted to reintroduce them, and maybe the state court will allow him to do so. And then SLUSA's goal of preventing state-court end runs around limitations that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act had placed on federal suits for securities fraud would be thwarted.
Neither Holtz nor Goldberg , both of which affirmed dismissals with prejudice, call Brown 's no-amendment holding into question. To the contrary, neither offered an opportunity to amend despite acknowledging that it might have been possible for the plaintiffs in those cases to have set forth claims that did not implicate misstatements and omissions. In Holtz , the court concluded that "Holtz would have a contract claim free of a securities component" had she alleged that the Bank broke its promise by mistake, but affirmed the dismissal without opportunity to replead because she had failed to make such fraud-free allegations in the removed complaint. 846 F.3d at 932. Similarly, in Goldberg , Judge Flaum stated in his concurring opinion that the Brown panel (of which he was a member) did not address the question of whether SLUSA preclusion can be applied on a claim-by-claim basis, but nevertheless concluded that preclusion of the entire complaint was required because, although the plaintiff might have been able to plead a claim that did not involve a material misrepresentation or omission, he "did not take this approach" in the removed complaint. 846 F.3d at 920.
Here, it is also possible to imagine a complaint that does not involve misrepresentations or omissions. Portell has insisted (albeit unconvincingly) that her claim is really for negligence, not fraud, and a complaint that alleged only that the defendants negligently designed, tested, and managed the KZSIX fund, without relying on undisclosed conflicts of interest or otherwise implicating the information provided in connection with the KZSIX investment, might not fall within SLUSA's ambit. But that is not this complaint. As presented *1038here, the breach of fiduciary claims rely heavily on allegations of undisclosed conflicts of interest and lack of informed consent. And, for the reasons discussed, those claims are subject to SLUSA removal-which also appears to require dismissal of the putative class action complaint with prejudice.
It bears noting that dismissal would not leave Portell without a remedy. If, after dismissal, she wishes to reassert any claims-even those that rely on the alleged misrepresentations and nondisclosures alleged her present complaint-she may do so in her own individual capacity; SLUSA simply precludes her ability to do so in a "covered class action"-that is, an action involving fifty or more identified plaintiffs acting in their individual capacities, 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(5)(B)(i)(I), or as a representative of other similarly situated individuals without regard to the size of the proposed class, 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(5)(B)(i)(II). See Nielen-Thomas v. Concorde Inv. Servs., LLC ,
Because the Court has not yet afforded Portell an opportunity to address dismissal, however, the case will not yet be dismissed. A status hearing will be held on Friday, March 29, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. to address whether, in light of the denial of her remand motion, Portell seeks to contest dismissal of the putative class-action complaint. If Portell determines, in advance of the status hearing, that she does not wish to contest dismissal, per se, but wishes to appeal the denial of her remand motion, she may file a voluntary notice of dismissal with prejudice noting the reservation of her right to appeal the denial of her motion to remand. In the event of such filing, the status hearing will be stricken, the case will be terminated, and a final, appealable, judgment in favor of the defendants will be entered.
* * *
For the reasons stated above, Portell's motion to remand [17] is denied.
The Court considers the entire July 2015 letter because it is central to Portell's claims and is both referenced in and attached to (in part) the complaint. See Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. Thompson ,
The defendants do not contend that the complaint alleges "that the defendant used or employed any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance." 15 U.S.C. § 77p(b)(2) ; see also 15 U.S.C. § 78bb(f)(1)(B).
The notice of removal asserts no other basis for the exercise of federal jurisdiction over Portell's claims.
Goldberg v. Bank of Am., N.A. ,
Although it is of no consequence in this case where the complaint is replete with express allegations about nondisclosure, it bears noting that preclusion does not depend on whether allegations of nondisclosure are express. The nondisclosure in Holtz was implied; the amended complaint expressly disavowed any allegation of "fraud, deceptive practices, misrepresentation, or material omission in connection with the purchase or sale of securities." See Holtz v. JP Morgan Chase & Co. , No. 12-7080 (N.D. Ill.), Am. Class Action Compl. ¶ 1, ECF No. 34. And in Brown , the Seventh Circuit held the suit to be precluded on the basis of implicit misrepresentations and omissions. See
The Court does not understand this to mean that preclusion is limited to situations in which a court can conclude that the facts alleged are sufficient to state a federal securities fraud claim; to the contrary, in both Holtz and Goldberg , the court of appeals made clear that preclusion does not turn on whether a complaint pleads a viable securities law claim. See Holtz , 846 F.3d at 930 (holding that "a plaintiff cannot sidestep SLUSA by omitting allegations of scienter or reliance); Goldberg , 846 F.3d at 916 (rejecting premise "that only state-law claims that overlap winning securities claims" are precluded by SLUSA); see also the discussion infra at 14-15. Rather, the Court understands a securities claim that can be "pursued" to be one where "the allegations of the complaint make it likely that an issue of fraud will arise." Brown ,
Portell relies on other easily distinguished cases as well. Her citation to Spielman v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith ,
Green v. Ameritrade ,
The Court notes as well that Portell essentially ignores cases from this Circuit that are directly on point, such as Holtz (which Portell cited in reply only on the issue of materiality) and Goldberg (which she did not cite at all). Portell's failure to address these cases forthrightly, even in reply after they feature prominently in the defendants' response, while relying on dated and distinguishable out of circuit cases, does nothing to strengthen her argument.
"Although some case law refers to SLUSA preemption rather than preclusion, SLUSA does not itself displace state law with federal law but makes some state-law claims nonactionable through the class-action device in federal as well as state court." Nielen-Thomas v. Concorde Investment Servs., LLC ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Theresa L. PORTELL, individually and on behalf of the class members described below v. Nadim Khalil ZAYED a/k/a Dean Zayed, Brookstone Capital Management LLC, and Kaizen Advisory, LLC
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published