Maria Fan, of New York, New York, a stockbroker formerly registered with Aegis Capital Corp., was fined $7,500.00 and suspended from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member firm in any capacity after consenting to findings that she made unwarranted and misleading statements concerning investments to a customer. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 20150483570-01 (Nov. 3, 2016).
According to the AWC, from September of 2014 to February of 2015, Fan used means of communications with firm customers that were outside the firm’s supervised channels. Fan apparently made investment recommendations through this channel with a customer, RZ, to whom Fan made misleading statements regarding securities.
Particularly, Fan informed RZ that Fan would be able to generate a $1,000.00 return on the customer’s investment of $2,000.00 – all in one day. Fan was also cited for making predictions that a company’s price would go up at a set point in the future. Further, Fan reportedly stated to RZ that strategies imposed by Fan involving covered calls would not cause the customer to bear any loss. FINRA found that Fan’s remarks in this regard constituted promissory claims that were exaggerated, and predictions which were inappropriate. Fan’s conduct was found to be violative of FINRA Rules 2010, 2210(d), as well as 4511.
FINRA Public Disclosure reveals that Fan has been subject to three customer initiated arbitration claims. Specfiically, on November 14, 2014, a customer initiated an investment related arbitration claim involving Fan’s conduct, in which the customer requested $5,000.00 in damages based upon allegations that Fan effected trades that were not authorized, and that Fan was responsible for the customer’s poor investment performance.
On September 2, 2015, a customer initiated investment related arbitration claim involving Fan’s actions was settled for $30,000.00 in damages based upon allegations that Fan effected unauthorized transactions in the customer’s account. On November 20, 2015, another customer initiated investment related arbitration claim was settled for $12,500.00 in damages based upon allegations that Fan made unsuitable investment recommendations, traded in the customer’s account without having proper authorization, and defrauded the customer.
Following Fan’s termination from Aegis Capital Corp. in August of 2015, she became registered with Wilmington Capital Securities, LLC, from July of 2015 to January of 2016.
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