Leslie George Markus, Jr. of Center Valley, Pennsylvania, a stockbroker formerly registered with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., has been charged in a Complaint by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Department of Enforcement alleging that Markus effected unauthorized trades in customer accounts, and falsified statements to FINRA personnel in regard to his trading activities. Department of Enforcement v. Leslie George Markus Jr., Disciplinary Proceeding No. 2015047069701 (Nov. 17, 2017).
According to the Complaint, Markus was responsible for servicing one of the individual brokerage investment accounts of firm customer, JW. Apparently, Markus lacked discretionary trading authority on JW’s brokerage account, and he was never authorized to effect trades on a discretionary basis. The Complaint also stated that discretionary trading was disallowed by the firm if not being utilized on a price and time basis.
The Complaint revealed that eleven transactions had been executed by Markus in the account owned by JW even though Markus lacked the customer’s consent. Particularly, Markus effected the purchase of 848.356 Invesco Diversified Dividend Fund Class C shares; 602.929 American Century Global Real Estate Fund Class C shares; 3,378.378 Columbia Strategic Income Fund Class C shares; 426.659 American Century Mid Cap Value Fund Class C shares; 353.357 Deutsche CROCI International Fund Class C shares; 1,034,807 Wells Fargo Advantage Absolute Return Fund Class C shares; 1,561.145 JP Morgan Strategic Income Opportunities Funds Class C shares; 362.043 Guggenheim Floating Rate Strategies Fund Class C shares; 534.474 Federated Kaufmann Large Cap Fund Class C shares; 439.932 Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund Class C shares; and 385.039 Deutsch Mid Cap Value Fund Class C Shares.
The Complaint alleged that when Markus testified before FINRA personnel, he acknowledged to have never obtained customer JW’s authorization prior to placing the transactions. Evidently, on August 4, 2015, Markus asserted that the customer understood and agreed with the purchases of mutual funds with the customer’s cash. However, Markus then acknowledged with FINRA personnel that those entries were not accurate.
The Complaint stated that on October 6, 2015, Markus was sent a request from FINRA to provide information concerning his mutual fund trading. Markus responded by claiming that customer JW provided him with price and time discretion. Yet, the complaint alleged that Markus acknowledged with FINRA personnel that he never had discretionary trading power in the customer’s account. FINRA found that Markus’ failure to be forthcoming was violative of FINRA Rules 2010 and 8210.
FINRA Public Disclosure confirms that on April 3, 2006, a customer filed an investment related written complaint involving Markus’ conduct, where the customer sought $13,154.60 in damages founded on allegations that Markus, while employed with Multi-Financial, made misrepresentations in the course of soliciting a variable annuity purchase from the customer.
Markus was fired from Ameriprise on September 2, 2015, based upon accusations that Markus failed to comply with the firm’s trading policies by effecting trades in customer accounts on an unauthorized basis, and for neglecting to cooperate with the firm’s disciplinary action plan.
Markus has been registered with Lincoln Investment since September 18, 2015.
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