A FINRA arbitration panel ordered UBS AG on Tuesday to pay $81 million in damages to a Bethesda, Maryland-based cellphone marketer that purchased auction-rate securities through the U.S. brokerage.
FINRA documents posted online showed a panel comprised of three public arbitrators ordered to pay the damages to Kajeet Inc, which purchased student-loan auction-rate securities that lost value during the credit crisis.
Kajeet, which sells pay-as-you-go cell phones aimed at children, had claimed $110 million in losses.
State and federal regulators have forced UBS to repurchase $22.7 billion of auction rates from individual investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to investigate the role of individual executives at the firm.
In March, UBS agreed with a coalition of state securities regulators to purchase up to $200 million in auction-rates from investors not covered by the initial agreement.