Brokerage Firms In The News - Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce

Jul 7, 2015

Deltona Beach CCO and Firm Suspended for Falsifying DSR Forms

Robert Nash of Deltona Beach, Florida and Merrimac Corporate Securities, Inc., (Merrimac) of Altamonte Springs, Florida have been fined and suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Department of Enforcement for failing to establish and maintain a reasonable supervisory system and for falsifying Deposit Securities Request Forms (DSR Forms). Merrimac was a general securities broker-dealer that first became registered as a FINRA member in 1993, where Nash served as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). While Merrimac was under investigation by FINRA, it was determined that Merrimac, through Nash, provided false documents to FINRA and that “Merrimac and certain of its employees violated federal securities regulations and FINRA rules relating to a variety of topics.” Over the course of the investigation, Merrimac provided 37 falsified documents to FINRA. Nash, CCO of Merrimac, acknowledged that he was responsible for the information in the documents.

May 26, 2015

UBS Ordered to Pay Investor $1M in Damages for Unsuitable UBS Puerto Rico Funds

UBS Wealth Management and UBS Puerto Rico have been ordered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to pay $1 million in damages to a 66 year old investor. According to the arbitration panel, UBS brokers encouraged the investor to keep and hold 100% of his investment portfolio in risky Puerto Rico closed end bond funds despite the fact that the investment was extremely over-concentrated and completely unsuitable for him. According to the arbitration award, this conservative, frugal investor lost $737,000 of his nearly $1 million portfolio. When the investor approached UBS with his concerns about the decline in the value of his investment portfolio the UBS branch manager allegedly stated that “even a skinny cow could give milk.” The FINRA arbitration award went on to note that UBS provided the investor with brochures and monthly statements in English, despite the fact that he spoke very little English and had requested the documents be sent in Spanish. Unfortunately, this investor did not know that UBS brokers were allegedly under pressure to sell these risky closed-end bond funds and to encourage investors to hold the bonds even when their value collapsed in the fall of 2013.

May 13, 2015

JP Morgan under Investigation for Possible Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Mutual Fund Sales

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPMorgan) is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about a potential conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty with respect to its sales of mutual funds and other proprietary products. According to InvestmentNews, JPMorgan received subpoenas and inquiries from the SEC and other government authorities about the firm’s sale and recommendations of mutual funds and other proprietary investment products in its wealth management business. At question is the alleged breach of fiduciary duty, which requires that financial advisors put their customers’ best interests ahead of their own.

May 8, 2015

LPL Financial Hit with $11.7 Million Fine for Failure to Supervise Investment Sales

LPL Financial LLC (LPL Financial) was fined $11.7 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for failing to maintain a proper supervisory system with respect to the sales of complex investment products, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), variable annuities, mutual funds, and non-traded real estate investment trusts. Without admitting or denying the findings, LPL Financial consented to FINRA’s sanctions and findings that if failed to enforce its supervisory procedures for the sales of non-traditional ETFs, such as leveraged, inverse, and inverse-leveraged ETFs. Specifically, FINRA found that LPL Financial failed to enforce allocation limits with respect to customers’ investment objectives in its sales of non-traditional ETFs. LPL also failed to ensure that some of its registered representatives were adequately trained to sell the ETFs.

Apr 3, 2015

Complaint Filed Against Former Calton & Associates Representative for Alleged Bond Mark Ups

A complaint filed against Calton & Associates Inc., located in Tampa, Florida, and Kenneth Harter of Roland, Arkansas alleges that they “charged customers prices that were not reasonable in municipal bond transactions.” The complaint alleges that R.M. Duncan Securities, acting through two of its representatives and, eventually, Calton & Associates and Mr. Harter, sold bonds to its customers at unfair prices. R.M. Duncan Securities representatives allegedly solicited three elderly customers to purchase a total of $215,000 par value of the bonds. According to FINRA, the representatives told their clients the bonds “would receive an 11% tax-free yield on the bond interest payments, despite the fact that the bonds were in default and not paying full interest.” Calton & Associates and Mr. Harter allegedly solicited customers to purchase bonds that were purchased from the R.M. Duncan Securities at a price that was 60% higher than the prevailing market price. FINRA alleges that R.M. Duncan Securities and Calton & Associates worked in “concert” to make the inter-dealer appear higher than the market price to pull off their scheme. FINRA alleges the brokerage firms failed to supervise their municipal securities activities and prices and are currently under investigation.

Mar 16, 2015

WFG Investments Hit with $700,000 Fine for Due Diligence and Supervision Lapses

WFG Investments, Inc. of Dallas, Texas submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm consented to, but it did not admit to or deny, the described sanctions and the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that it failed to conduct appropriate due diligence and supervision with respect to a private placement offering and that a registered representative sold an investment away from the firm as an approved private securities transaction. FINRA found that in various times between March 2007 and January 2014, “the Firm failed to commit the necessary time, attention and resources to an array of critical regulatory obligations related to its supervision of registered representatives.” Clients who invested in the private placement offering allegedly lost their entire investment. FINRA also found that WFG Investments failed to supervise its representatives, who allegedly recommended the sale of high risk equity and ETF purchases for a retired client with conservative risk tolerance. In addition, WFG Investments failed to supervise a representative’s private securities transactions. According to FINRA, the WFG representative allegedly structured and sold two funds that had substantial investments (exceeding the 50% limit) without investors’ knowledge. All private placement investors allegedly “lost 100% of their investments resulting from a related entity’s fraudulent business practices.” Consequently, WFG Investments was censured and fined $700,000 by FINRA.

Mar 13, 2015

Geoffrey Richards Securities Fined For Net Capital Problems

Geoffrey Richards Securities Corp. of Hypoluxo, Florida submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm consented to, but did not admit to or deny the described sanctions and the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that it conducted securities business after the firm’s net capital fell below its minimum requirement. FINRA member since 2002, Geoffrey Richards Securities Corp. (Geoffrey Richards) is a firm that specializes in securities. FINRA found “between June 2010 and January 2013, Geoffrey Richards acted as an underwriter in a firm commitment offerings, conducted a securities business while it was net capital deficient, failed to file to the requisite net capital deficiency notifications, filed inaccurate Financial and Operational Combined Uniform Single (FOCUS) Reports, and maintained inaccurate books and records.” Mr. Richards’ alleged involvement as underwriter in the firm commitment offering required deductions to the firm’s net capital to be made. For an eight day period, the firm’s net capital fell below its minimum requirement. For violation of several FINRA, NASD, and SEC Rules, Geoffrey Richards Securities Corp. was fined $40,000.

Mar 12, 2015

Clearview Correspondent Services Fined $1 Million for Bad Options Reporting

Clearview Correspondent Services, LLC (Clearview) of Richmond, Virginia submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm consented to, but did not admit to or deny, the described sanctions and the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that it failed to report positions to the Large Options Position Reporting (LOPR) system. According to FINRA, Clearview (now known as BB&T Securities), failed to properly aggregate positions of over 1,000 accounts that were acting in concert under the coms review periods. In addition, FINRA found that the firm failed to “establish and maintain a supervisory system that was reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the applicable securities laws and regulations, and FINRA Rules, concerning the reporting of options positions to the LOPR.” Consequently, Clearview, n/k/a BB&T, was censured and fined $1,000,000.

Mar 11, 2015

Dawson James Securities Fined For Failing to Conduct Adequate Due Diligence

Dawson James Securities, Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm consented to, but did not admit to or deny, the described sanctions and the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that it “failed to establish and implement an adequate system to determine whether a former registrant’s disclosed outside business was properly characterized as an outside business activity or whether it should be treated as an outside securities activity subject to the requirements of NASD Rule 3040.”

Mar 6, 2015

Former UBS Broker Decries the Marketing and Sale of Structured Products to Conservative Investors

Michael Hadden, a former broker with UBS Wealth Management (UBS), has made claims that UBS allegedly made it “impossible” for his to continue working due to “… its various unethical practices with respect to customers …” as stated in his original arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Mr. Hadden has asked a federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, to overturn FINRAs arbitration award which ordered him to repay over $300,000 in bonus money, attorneys’ fees and interest. According to Mr. Hadden’s court filings, UBS would allegedly mislabel conservative investors as moderate in order to avoid future restitution and penalties. As Mr. Hadden noted in his court documents, “… the risk reporting system is done … to protect UBS from future claims of lack of suitability from the client or FINRA.”