Daniel E. Peltier, of Edina, Minnesota, a stockbroker formerly registered with Raymond James & Associates, Inc., has been fined $40,000.00 and suspended for ten months from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity based upon consenting to findings that he engaged in the manipulation of a stock, failed to conduct reasonable due diligence prior to making investment recommendations, and effected unsuitable transactions in customer accounts. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 2015047070801 (Aug. 11, 2017).
According to the AWC, eighty-two buy limit orders for stock issued by Mix 1 Life, Inc., an over-the-counter equity, were placed by Peltier between July of 2014 and February of 2015, where the transactions were effected in Peltier’s account subsequent to recommending that five other customers effect purchases of the same stock. Apparently, Peltier relied upon a stock promoter to determine the number of shares to be purchased, as well as the time that purchases should be made.
Evidently, during the forty-six days that trading took place by Peltier, his orders represented twenty-percent more than MIXX’s market volume. That is, sixty buy limit orders were apparently placed by Peltier to effect the MIXX purchases, where the orders were matched at another brokerage. The AWC stated that the orders were often entered at prices that exceeded the best ask price, and his orders caused MIXX’s price to be maintained at approximately six dollars per share. Apparently, the market manipulation that occurred due to Peltier’s orders was something that FINRA stated that Peltier should have known of. Consequently, Peltier’s conduct was found violative of FINRA Rule 2010.
The AWC additionally stated that Peltier solicited investments in MIXX in violation of his own firm’s policies. Apparently, Peltier still marked the orders as unsolicited when thirty orders were solicited, leading his firm’s records and books to be inaccurate. FINRA found that Peltier’s conduct in this regard was violative of FINRA Rule 2010 and 4511. Further, the AWC stated that Peltier never conducted a review of the financial statements of MIXX before making investment recommendations to customers. FINRA found that Peltier lacked an adequate foundation to conclude that his recommendations of the over-the-counter equities were appropriate; conduct violative of FINRA Rule 2010 and 2111.
FINRA Public Disclosure confirms that Peltier has been identified in three customer initiated investment related disputes pertaining to allegations of Peltier’s wrongdoing while he was associated with RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Merrill Lynch. Specifically, on November 16, 2001, a customer initiated investment related written complaint involving Peltier’s conduct was settled for $2,777.60 in damages based upon allegations against Peltier of effecting unsuitable equity transactions in the customer’s account.
Moreover, on September 17, 2002, a customer filed an investment related written complaint involving Peltier’s conduct, wherein the customer sought $27,000.00 in damages supported by allegations that Peltier effected trades in the customer’s account on an excessive basis. Then, on May 12, 2016, a customer initiated investment related written complaint involving Peltier’s conduct was settled for $45,033.63 in damages based upon allegations that he inappropriately placed over-the-counter equities transactions in the customer’s portfolio.
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