LOS ANGELES, March 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The securities arbitration law firm Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. (http://www.dkrpa.com) has filed FINRA arbitration claims against Los Angeles-area brokerage firm Centaurus Financial Inc. relating to sales of promissory notes issued by The Moret Group LLC, The PR Group, and The Precision Research Group, LLC. The claim alleges that former Centaurus broker Patric Ken Baccam, a/k/a Khanh Sengpraseuth recommended the promissory notes as low-risk investments. According to the claim, however, the entities that issued the promissory notes were owned and controlled by Mr. Baccam and his family and their sole purpose was to steal money from unsuspecting investors. This type of investment fraud is a gross violation of the trust and confidence that investors place in brokerage firms and brokers.

The Claimants in the FINRA case received several purported "interest" payments, but the payments stopped some time ago and the Claimants' principal has not been returned. When they asked Baccam about the lack of payments, Baccam said that payments would be forthcoming, but that has not happened. Baccam has stopped responding to the Claimants' inquiries, and he appears to have disappeared with nearly the entirety of the Claimants' retirement savings.

The FINRA arbitration claim accuses Centaurus of failing to properly supervise Baccam and of violations of California securities laws. "Brokerage firms are required to supervise brokers in an effort to ensure that brokers do not abuse clients' trust. Centaurus appears to have failed in that most basic function," said the Claimants' lawyer, Jeffrey Kaplan.

If you lost money in investments that Mr. Baccam recommended to you, contact attorney Jeffrey Kaplan at (888) 578-6255 or jkaplan@dkrpa.com for a free case evaluation. You also may visit Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. on the web at www.dkrpa.com.