Maureen Sloan, who is an heiress to the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park, has filed a claim against LPL Financial claiming one of its brokers lost $8.5 million with a fraudulent investment and with inappropriate trading of preferred stock, reports InvestmentNews.

Investors’ growing appetite for yield and an aversion to traditional equities has caused a stampede into alternative investments, raising eyebrows of regulators, who say that fraud associated with sales of the products is increasing.