Mitchell Toby Yanow of Boca Raton Florida a stockbroker formerly associated with Stifel Nicolaus Company Incorporated has been barred from being a stockbroker or investment adviser representative or otherwise associating with any securities broker dealer or investment advisory according to an SEC Order based on Yanow pleading guilty to wire fraud. In the Matter of Mitchell T. Yanow Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-19447 (Sept. 13, 2019).
The SEC Order noted that Yanow pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud which was violative of 18 U.S.C. Section 1343. United States v. Yanow, Criminal Action No. 4:18-cr-00787-JAR-1 (E.D. Mo. Apr. 30, 2019).
SEC alleged that customer AW who had a trust account at Stifel Nicolaus had been defrauded by Yanow from September of 2017 to May of 2018. During this period, the customer was advised by Yanow to hand him signed checks which were drawn against the customer’s account to cover Yanow’s expenses and his family affairs rather than for covering expenses incurred by AW. SEC indicated that the customer had incurred $211,648.00 in losses because of Yanow’s fraud. The regulator determined with Yanow pleading guilty to fraud that it was in the public interest for him to be barred from the securities industry.
Yanow has already been barred from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity based on findings that he converted funds belonging to an eighty-seven-year-old customer during the time that the stockbroker was employed by Stifel Nicolaus. Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent No. 2018058538001 (July 11, 2018). Yanow violated FINRA Rules 2010 and 2150(a) in this regard.
FINRA Public Disclosure indicates that on May 1, 2015, a customer initiated investment related complaint pertaining to Yanow’s conduct was settled for $144,000.00 in damages supported by allegations that the customer had been charged excessive commissions and margin interest as it pertained to transactions that were facilitated in the customer’s account during the period in which Yanow was employed by Oppenheimer Co. Inc.
Yanow was discharged by Stifel Nicolaus on May 10, 2018 based upon allegations of him taking a customer’s money without the customer’s permission.
