Jeffrey Travis Drost of Victoria Texas a stockbroker formerly registered with Raymond James Financial Services Inc. has been barred from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity founded on findings that Drost failed to cooperate with FINRA during the period that he was under investigation for potentially borrowing from customers of Raymond James Financial Services. Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent No. 2021071218701 (Aug. 27, 2021).
According to the AWC, the investigation of Drost stemmed from Raymond James Financial Services’ notification to FINRA (through a Form U5) about Drost’s termination from the securities broker dealer. Raymond James indicated on April 28, 2021 that Drost’s employment was terminated based upon allegations of customers loaning Drost funds without Drost informing the securities broker dealer and getting permission.
On July 29, 2021, FINRA requested that Drost provide documents and information in response to the accusations of his borrowing arrangements. The regulator received only a partial response by Drost in response on August 6, 2021.
Drost was probed again by the regulator on August 13, 2021. This second request was intended to extract the missing information from Drost. His August 19, 2021 response again failed to satisfy FINRA’s outstanding requests.
The AWC stated that on August 25, 2021, FINRA learned from Drost that he received its requests and would not provide any additional documents or information to the regulator. FINRA found that Drost obstructed the investigation in violation of FINRA Rules 2010 and 8210.
Drost was registered with Raymond James Financial Services between March 21, 2017 and April 28, 2021.
