Oppenheimer - Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce

Oct 13, 2017

Oppenheimer Broker Suspended by FINRA for Borrowing Money from Customers

Jason Likens, a former registered representative associated with Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Oppenheimer), submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in which he consented to, without admitting or denying, the findings that he borrowed money from his customers and did not begin to repay the loans until repeated requests were made. Jason Hunter Likens, of Asheville, North Carolina, allegedly approached an elderly customer with significant health issues to borrow $5,000 on two separate occasions in a month’s time. The customer provided the loans to Mr. Likens in both instances. Mr. Likens failed to repay the loans on schedule and did not do so until the customer and his family made repeated requests. FINRA found further that Mr. Likens approached another customer to borrow $13,500 and that customer, too, provided the loan. Once again, FINRA found that Mr. Likens failed to repay the loan until the customer made repeated requests.

Jun 13, 2016

FINRA Hits Oppenheimer with a $2.9 Million Fine for Failure to Supervise ETF Sales

Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Oppenheimer) has been hit with a fine of $2.25 million and ordered to pay restitution to affected customers of over $716,000 for failing to supervise the unsuitable sales of leveraged, inverse and inverse-leveraged exchange-traded funds (non-traditional ETFs). According to FINRA, Oppenheimer failed to enforce its own policies with respect to the solicitation and recommendation of ETFs by its registered representatives. Although Oppenheimer put ETF-related policies in place in 2009 (in response to FINRA Regulatory Notice 09-31), its representatives continued to solicit customers and to execute non-traditional ETF transactions despite the customers not meeting Oppenheimer’s criteria for suitability, e.g. having liquid assets of more than $500,000. FINRA’s findings state that Oppenheimer representatives carried out more than 30,000 ETF transactions, totaling approximately $1.7 billion during the relevant time period.

Nov 6, 2014

SEC Cracks Down on Improper Sales of Puerto Rico Junk Bonds

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined 13 brokerage firms, including Charles Schwab, J.P. Morgan, Oppenheimer, TD Ameritrade, and UBS Financial, for violating a rule that is meant to protect investors from improper sales of high-risk Puerto Rican municipal bonds. The fines range from $54,000 to $130,000. The SEC sanctions are the first under the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) Rule G-15(f), which establishes the minimum denomination requirement for the sales of municipal bonds. The minimum denomination amounts are the least amount of a given municipal bond that a broker dealer is permitted to sell to an investor in one transaction. The more risky the bond, the higher the minimum. This is meant to ensure that the bond investments are suited to the appropriate investor.