LOS ANGELES -- Basketball great Jerry West, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, the Dodgers' Nomar Garciaparra and other athletes claim they were bilked out of $3 million by a Los Angeles investment adviser, their attorney said Friday.
Twenty-one people, many of them current or former athletes, filed a claim of fraud, negligence and breach of duty last June with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority contending that UBS Financial Services Inc. made unnecessary bond trades in order to reap commissions, said Steven M. Goldberg, an attorney for the claimants.
The non-governmental authority licenses and regulates brokers. It will be heard by a binding arbitration panel in July.
"We believe the claims were without merit," UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne said Friday.
The claim includes "vague allegations ... untethered to any articulated factual and legal basis," UBS said in its formal answer to the claim.
The claim involves $300 million in bond trades made for UBS clients from 2002 to 2006 by Gary R. Fournier, who has since moved to Bear Stearns Cos. Fournier has denied any wrongdoing.
"We just don't think there is any merit whatsoever to any of the claims and we are confident that Mr. Fournier is going to be fully exonerated through this hearing," said his attorney, Michael Blumenfeld.
"He is probably one of the finest financial advisers. He has a clean record in the industry and he's always put his clients' interests ahead of his own."
Some of the other claimants include former NBA players B.J. Armstrong, Brent Barry, Stacey Augmon and Jeffrey West; former Major League Baseball players Sean Douglass, Mark Langston, Tom O'Malley and Rex Hudler, who now is a color commentator for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
They also include noted sports agent Arn Tellem and his wife, Nancy, who is president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group.
West and the others are seeking unspecified damages.
Fournier made "excessive and unnecessary trades ... for the improper purpose of generating extra and exorbitant commissions," according to the claim. It also accuses Fournier of "churning" bonds by selling them from one client to another to pocket more commissions.
"In some cases, a bond would be sold from client A to client B, with commissions taken from both," Goldberg said. "If your position is that a bond that you've purchased for a client no longer is good and should be sold ... why would you then sell it to one of your other clients?"
Clients also were told the commission on trades would be no more than a half-percent but in fact the undisclosed fee often was much higher, the claim contends.