SECURITIES

PaineWebber Facing Two Lawsuits: PaineWebber Group Inc. has been sued by two clients who accuse the brokerage of duping them into buying risky limited partnerships. The two lawsuits, which seek class-action status, follow the disclosure early this week that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating PaineWebber as part of a broad review of Wall Street’s limited partnerships sales. The suits, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by customers from DeQueen, Ark. and Boulder, Colo., seek unspecified damages. The SEC is reviewing whether PaineWebber misrepresented risks and rewards when it sold about $2 billion of partnerships that invested in real estate and energy projects and other assets from 1980 to 1992, people familiar with the review said. PaineWebber customers lost money in such investments when property and energy prices declined.