Jonathan R. Belden of Oakland California is a stockbroker formerly registered with Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith Inc. who has been fined $10,000.00 and suspended for sixty days from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity based upon consenting to findings that he mismarked customer order tickets and exercised discretionary authority in the customer’s investment advisory accounts. Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent No. 2017055000501 (Apr. 12, 2018).
According to the AWC, from March 9, 2017 to May 22, 2017, two hundred securities transactions were effected in the accounts of seven Merrill Lynch customers despite Belden lacking written authorization from those customers beforehand. Apparently, Belden never retrieved authorization from Merrill Lynch to place trades in customer accounts on a discretionary basis; the accounts were not approved by Merrill Lynch for that purpose. Consequently, FINRA concluded that Belden’s conduct was violative of FINRA Rule 2010 as well as National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Rule 2510(b).
The AWC additionally stated that from April 21, 2017 to April 26, 2017, order tickets had been mismarked by Belden as having been unsolicited by him when they were actually solicited. Apparently, Belden knew that unless an exception applied, the transactions placed on Merrill Lynch’s restricted list could not be placed if they were solicited. Consequently, the orders were marked as unsolicited so that Belden could execute the transactions. FINRA found Belden’s conduct to be violative of FINRA Rules 2010 and 4511 in that regard.
Merrill Lynch terminated Belden on July 6, 2017 based upon accusations that he placed trades in customers’ accounts without authorization.
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