K.C. Ward Financial Broker Barred for Unsuitable and Unauthorized Trading
Craig David Dima, a stockbroker formerly employed with K.C. Ward Financial, submitted an Offer of Settlement to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in which he was barred from association with any FINRA member. Without admitting or denying FINRA’s allegations, Craig Dima consented to the entry of findings that he made unauthorized and unsuitable trades in the IRA account of an elderly retiree. According to FINRA, Mr. Dima sold nearly all of his 73-year old customer’s Colgate-Palmolive stock, which she had accumulated during her 28 years of employment with the company. FINRA alleged that on 11 occasions, Mr. Dima sold the customer’s shares without permission and even after the customer told him not to sell the stock. When Mr. Dima’s elderly customer confronted him about the sales, he misrepresented to her that the transactions were caused by a computer glitch. As a result of Mr. Dima’s unauthorized sales, the customer was charged more than $375,000 in mark-ups, mark-downs, and fees. Further, the customer was deprived of substantial dividends she would have received had she held the Colgate shares as she had intended. FINRA found that the unauthorized, unsuitable trades executed by Mr. Dima totaled approximately $15 million in his customer’s retirement account. In the Order Accepting Offer of Settlement, Mr. Dima was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.
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