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Apr 9, 2025

Forrest Nolan Jackson Barred from the Securities Industry by FINRA for Selling Away Investments

Forrest Nolan Jackson, a former broker with Carpinteria, California based PlanMember Securities Corporation, submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s findings that, acting outside the normal course and scope of his employment with PlanMember Securities, he participated in private securities transactions from which he received compensation without providing prior written notice to his firm of his proposed role or the selling compensation that he might receive from the transactions. FINRA found that Mr. Jackson never received PlanMember Securities’ written approval to participate in private securities transactions. Mr. Jackson, of Austin, Texas, was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

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Apr 9, 2025

Donald Wayne Hastings Barred by FINRA for Lying to a Customer about an Account Opening and Subsequently Commingling the Customer’s Funds

Donald Wayne Hastings, a former broker with Lincoln, Nebraska based Allstate Financial Services, LLC, submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that a customer provided Mr. Hastings with a check for $12,000 to open an IRA. The customer believed the funds would be invested on his behalf and that he would receive 5 percent interest on his investment. Mr. Hastings neither created the IRA nor opened an account for the customer. The customer was 73 years-old, therefore an IRA could not be opened. FINRA’s findings stated that Mr. Hastings deposited the customer’s funds into a business account under his direction and control. Mr. Hastings paid interest to the customer using his own funds at prevailing interest rates. FINRA also stated that the customer was unaware the IRA was never created and his funds were never invested in any securities or investment products. FINRA further included that Mr. Hastings did not inform or seek approval from his supervisor or from anyone with his member firm to commingle the customer’s funds in an account under his personal control. When the customer inquired about his IRA account, the firm informed the customer that he did not have an IRA account with the firm. Mr. Hastings, of Lewisville, Texas, was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

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Apr 9, 2025

Richard Joseph Gobel Fined and Suspended for Executing Unauthorized Trades in Clients’ Accounts

Richard Joseph Gobel, a former broker with Fairport, New York based Wall Street Financial Group, Inc., submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he exercised discretionary power in customers’ accounts without the customers’ written authorization to place discretionary trades. The findings stated that Mr. Gobel failed to obtain his member firm’s written acceptance of the accounts as discretionary and falsely declared to the firm that he was not placing trades on a discretionary basis in customer accounts. Mr. Gobel, of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, was fined $7,500 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for 45 business days. The fine must be paid either immediately upon Mr. Gobel’s re-association with a FINRA member firm following his suspension, or prior to the filing of any application or request for relief from any statutory disqualification, whichever is earlier. Mr. Gobel’s suspension is in effect from February 19, 2013, through April 23, 2013.

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Apr 9, 2025

Jaime Melissa Cassino Suspended for Executing Unauthorized Trades in a Client’s Account

Jaime Melissa Cassino, a former broker with Charlotte, North Carolina based Synergy Investment Group, LLC, submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which she consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that she effected 122 discretionary transactions in the account of a customer without the customer’s prior written authorization and without her member firm’s acceptance of the account as a discretionary account. Ms. Cassino, of Miller Place, New York, was suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for one month, and her suspension was in effect from February 19, 2013, through March 18, 2013.

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Apr 9, 2025

Jaoshiang Luo aka Rudy Luo Named in a FINRA Complaint for Allegedly Violating a Slew of Securities Industry Rules

Jaoshiang Luo aka Rudy Luo, of Flushing, New York, was named in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint alleging that he violated his suitability obligations, made material misstatements, and omitted material facts in connection with the sale of promissory notes issued by his firm’s, New York, New York based Westrock Advisors, Inc., parent company, Westrock Group, Inc., which defaulted on the payments it owed to retail investors. FINRA alleges that Mr. Luo did not have a reasonable basis for recommending the promissory notes to any customer and did not take any meaningful steps to understand Westrock Group’s financial condition prior to selling the notes, such as reviewing financial statements or other financial information. Mr. Luo allegedly recommended the notes to specific customers for whom the speculative investment was unsuitable. FINRA further alleges that Mr. Luo made misstatements and omissions concerning material facts, including the actual financial condition of the Westrock Group, his lack of understanding of the financial condition of Westrock Group, and the safety of the promissory note investments. In addition, the complaint alleges that Mr. Luo failed to conduct a reasonable investigation of Westrock Group to determine whether the securities being offered were suitable for recommendation to any customer. Moreover, the complaint alleges that Mr. Luo did not have reasonable grounds to believe that his recommendations to customers were suitable on the basis of the facts the customers disclosed as to the customers’ other securities holdings and financial situation and needs.

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Apr 9, 2025

Shawn Charles Haynes Named in a FINRA Complaint for Allegedly Violating a Slew of Securities Industry Rules

Shawn Charles Haynes, of Roosevelt, New York, was named in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint alleging that he violated his suitability obligations, made material misstatements, and omitted material facts in connection with the sale of promissory notes issued by his firm’s, New York, New York based Westrock Advisors, Inc., parent company, Westrock Group, Inc., which defaulted on the payments it owed to retail investors. FINRA alleges that Mr. Haynes did not have a reasonable basis for recommending the promissory notes to any customer and did not take any meaningful steps to understand Westrock Group’s financial condition prior to selling the notes, such as reviewing financial statements or other financial information. Mr. Haynes allegedly recommended the notes to specific customers for whom the speculative investment was unsuitable. FINRA further alleges that Mr. Haynes made misstatements and omissions concerning material facts, including the actual financial condition of the Westrock Group, his lack of understanding of the financial condition of Westrock Group, and the safety of the promissory note investments. In addition, the complaint alleges that Mr. Haynes failed to conduct a reasonable investigation of Westrock Group to determine whether the securities being offered were suitable for recommendation to any customer. Moreover, the complaint alleges that Mr. Haynes did not have reasonable grounds to believe that his recommendations to customers were suitable on the basis of the facts the customers disclosed as to the customers’ other securities holdings and financial situation and needs. On top of all this, FINRA alleges that Mr. Haynes signed a customer account form he knew contained false information about a customer’s investment objective and risk tolerance and caused the account form to be maintained as a record by his firm.

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Apr 9, 2025

Mark Timothy Youngs Fined and Suspended by FINRA for Giving a Client a Fictitious Bond Redemption Confirmation

Mark Timothy Youngs, a broker formerly with New York, New York based RBC Capital Markets, LLC, submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $5,000, suspended, and consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he recommended to a brokerage customer that he sell a municipal bond and purchase a unit investment trust (UIT) comprised of certain international bonds, which was subsequently contested by the customer. FINRA said that having understood the customer to have authorized the transactions, Mr. Youngs sold the bond and purchased the UIT in the customer’s account. After having received transaction confirmations, the customer approached Mr. Youngs questioning the sell transaction in his account and claiming that it had not been authorized. After this confrontation, Mr. Youngs created and provided to the customer a document that made it appear that the municipal bond had been redeemed by the issuer rather than sold. FINRA also said that when Mr. Youngs’ manager questioned him about the transactions in the customer’s account, Mr. Youngs immediately admitted that he had created and provided to the customer a sham redemption notice. Mr. Young, of Annapolis, Maryland, was terminated by RBC Capital Markets, and he was suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for four months.

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Apr 9, 2025

Edward Eugene Williams Barred from the Securities Industry by FINRA for Misappropriating Funds

Edward Eugene Williams, a former broker with Des Moines, Iowa based Princor Financial Services Corporation, has been sanctioned by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) based on findings that Mr. Williams misappropriated a total of $2,548.83 from his adult sons’ IRAs by utilizing a mutual fund’s website to electronically request early distribution checks made out to the sons. When Mr. Williams received the checks, he forged his sons’ signatures and endorsed most of them for deposit in his own bank account without his sons’ knowledge or consent. Mr. Williams, of Loganville, Georgia, was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

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Apr 9, 2025

Roman Jerzy Sledziejowski Barred from the Securities Industry by FINRA for Stealing Customers’ Funds

Roman Jerzy Sledziejowski, a former broker with Brooklyn, New York based TWS Financial, LLC, submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that as part of a fraudulent scheme, he converted and/or misused funds of his firm’s customers and provided false account statements to some of those customers in an attempt to hide the misconduct. FINRA said that during the course of Mr. Sledziejowski’s fraudulent scheme, a total of approximately $4.8 million was wired to a company that Mr. Sledziejowski owned from the bank and brokerage accounts of firm customers. FINRA also said that Mr. Sledziejowski provided some of the customers with account statements and snapshots that displayed account balances consistent with what the customers believed to be in their firm brokerage account. Based on the actual account statements provided by the firm’s clearing firms, the statements Mr. Sledziejowski provided were fabrications and the values and holdings in the customers’ firm brokerage accounts differed significantly from what Mr. Sledziejowski led them to believe were in their brokerage accounts. As of April 2013, Mr. Sledziejowski had only returned approximately $1.5 million of those funds to the customers. FINRA further included that Mr. Sledziejowski failed to cooperate with FINRA’s investigation and failed to appear for an on-the-record interview. Mr. Sledziejowski, of Ossining, New York, was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

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Apr 9, 2025

Sean Francis Sheridan Barred from the Securities Industry by FINRA for Mutual Fund Abuse

Sean Francis Sheridan, a former broker with Atlanta, Georgia based J.P Turner & Company, L.L.C., submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he consented to the entry of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he recommended and effected unsuitable mutual fund switches in customers’ accounts. FINRA said that Mr. Sheridan only recommended Class A mutual fund shares to the customers, which resulted in them having to pay additional sales charges with each new purchase. In addition, Mr. Sheridan engaged in the short-term trading of mutual fund positions in the customers’ accounts. FINRA also said that Mr. Sheridan recommended and effected the transactions in the customers’ accounts without having reasonable grounds to believe that such transactions were suitable for the customers in view of the size and frequency of the transactions, the transaction costs incurred, and in light of the customers’ financial situations, their investment objectives and needs. The customers lost a total of approximately $1,048,856, and Mr. Sheridan received commissions of approximately $267,000. FINRA further stated Mr. Sheridan failed to disclose to the customers that they could avoid a sales charge for each new Class A mutual purchase through the use of a free exchange, which was material information. Because Mr. Sheridan failed to provide the customers with the option of utilizing free exchanges, the customers paid front-end sales loads of approximately 4 to 5 percent for each mutual fund transaction. Mr. Sheridan, of Oakhurst, New Jersey, was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

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