Investors Say Firm Covered Up Fraud

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - A group of investors filed seven securities fraud lawsuits against MML Investors Services and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, accusing the companies of knowingly exposing them to a crooked employee who swindled them out of more than $11 million.

All seven lawsuits claim that MML failed to protect the plaintiffs from the fraudulent dealings of former MML broker Randy Rhodes. Rhodes promised to invest the plaintiffs' money in low risk stocks. Instead, he allegedly kept the money for himself, and handed out phony sales reports.

MML fired Rhodes in 1998 after an Oregon state investigation uncovered his dirty dealings, buy neither MML nor its insurance subsidiary told the plaintiffs about Rhodes' fraud, according to the complaint. As a result, the plaintiffs say they continued to funnel their money into Rhodes' "investments."

In 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Rhodes, but the plaintiffs say they've only gotten only a fraction of their money back as a result of that case. They want the defendants to cover the rest of their losses.

James Shadduck of Gatti Gatti filed the plaintiffs' lawsuits in Multnomah County Court.

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