Business

No joke, Will Ferrell fined as Finra case flops

Funnymen Will Ferrell and Larry David were laughed off the stage recently by Wall Street’s self-policing arm, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, for their slapstick effort to sue brokerage firm JPMorgan Securities.

Movie star Ferrell, and David, of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” lost an $18 million arbitration case against JPMorgan last week when Finra, which handles brokerage complaints, tossed their case and fined them $634,000.

The case against JPMorgan, claiming “unauthorized and unsuitable purchases of unspecified preferred securities,” was first brought by Los Angeles business manager Matt Lichtenberg in 2008. In 2009, Lichtenberg, who is known for real estate deals involving Ferrell, added Ferrell, his wife Viveca Paulin, and a trust owned by David to the case.

Finra didn’t say why it ruled for JPMorgan, but it suggested that Lichtenberg — who was the only one of the group to appear at this month’s hearing — or his lawyers were lackadaisical in supplying the evidence.

“After three motions to compel discovery by [JPMorgan] and three orders from the panel, [members of Lichtenberg’s team] were still supplying ordered documents on the afternoon of the second day of the evidentiary hearing,” Finra chided in their decision letter.

Neither Lichtenberg nor his lawyer returned a request for comment.

Ferrell and David were ordered to pay JPMorgan $22,500 for “discovery abuse and failure to comply with the forum’s discovery rules” as a result. They were also ordered to pay $600,000 to JPMorgan for lawyers’ fees and $12,000 in arbitration costs.