Morgan Stanley Broker Suspended by FINRA for Falsifying Customer Account Documents
Byron A. Echeverria, a General Securities Representative formerly employed with the Houston, Texas branch of Morgan Stanley, submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent in which he 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 he falsified customer account documents without the customers’ knowledge. FINRA’s findings state that Byron A. Echeverria, of Katy, Texas, falsified ten documents related to ten customer accounts. Some of the falsified documents included disclosure forms, transfer forms and IRA distribution forms. Mr. Echeverria allegedly re-used original customer signatures from previously executed documents, recycled customers’ signed signature pages from expired forms, affixed customer initials to handwritten changes, and altered tax withholding amounts in order to expedite transactions. None of the customers were aware of the altered forms or that their signatures had been affixed by Mr. Echeverria.
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