Richard Sampley, of Atlanta, Georgia, a stockbroker formerly registered with Raymond James & Associates, Inc., was fined $15,000.00 and suspended for ten months from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity after consenting to findings that he engaged in unauthorized private securities transactions. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 2014043336601 (Oct. 24, 2016).
According to the AWC, from October of 2013 through July of 2014, during which point Sampley was registered with Raymond James, he facilitated four separate private securities transactions. In the first instance, customers were solicited by Sampley to make warrant investments in an energy company, BE. Apparently, Sampley facilitated these transactions by granting such warrants to customers and ultimately exercising warrants by customers. Sampley reportedly expected compensation from BE in return for his sales efforts.
The AWC stated that in November of 2013, three customers were solicited by Sampley to make investments of $357,000.00 in BE through warrants. The AWC stated that Sampley utilized his firm’s systems to facilitate the transactions. Apparently, $23,205.00 was wired from BE to Raymond James pursuant to the transactions, resulting in Sampley receiving a $9,514.00 commission. Additionally, in June of 2014, Sampley apparently assisted another prospective investor make an investment of $2,500,000.00 in BE via warrants. However, the fee that BE provided Raymond James pertaining to this transaction was later rejected by the firm.
The AWC stated that the firm’s personnel received merely an inquiry from Sampley regarding soliciting investments in BE warrants from customers; the firm never provided prior approval for any transaction he engaged in in this regard. Raymond James terminated Sampley on October 31, 2014, based upon allegations that he violated his firm’s policies concerning private securities transactions by engaging in them before the firm had approved of such.
Likewise, FINRA claimed that Sampley never provided his firm with written notification or retrieved the requisite approval from Raymond James prior to engaging in the transactions. FINRA found that Sampley’s conduct was violative of FINRA Rule 2010, as well as FINRA Rule 3040.
FINRA Public Disclosure reveals that Sampley previously settled a customer initiated investment related arbitration claim on June 27, 2000, in which the customer received $105,200.00 in damages based upon allegations that Sampley failed to execute the customer’s order of stock options.
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