Roland Craig Matatics, a former broker with MetLife Securities Inc. in Keene, N.H., has been permanently barred from the financial industry for misappropriating $10,000 from a customer suffering from dementia. Roland Craig Matatics Submits an AWC The money was later returned and Matatics submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to settle an action…
Last month Leland O. Stevens, a former broker with Great American Advisors Inc., settled a disciplinary action against him after he served up his unwitting customers to a Ponzi scheme. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a complaint against Stevens last year for his role in the sale of promissory notes that turned out…
Last month, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an investor alert to remind investors that a careful review of their periodic brokerage account statements is an important way for them to stay informed about what brokers are doing with their money. The alert, titled “It Pays to Understand Your Brokerage Account Statements and Trade Confirmations,”…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has sanctioned Christine L. Cantone and her firm for their failure to supervise a broker who sold fictitious investments to customers through which he misappropriated over $1.6 million. Cantone & Cantone Research Inc. Censored & Fined Pursuant to an FINRA order dated Feb. 22 that accepted an offer of…
Anthony L. Semadeni, a former stockbroker with World Group Securities, has been barred from the financial industry for two years and ordered to pay up to $60,000 in restitution plus interest to customers for borrowing money from them and never fully paying it back. Semadeni also lied to World Group about the loans he received…
A former Edward Jones administrator has been permanently barred from the financial industry after misappropriating a total of $63,000 from 21 customers. According to a default decision issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on Feb. 15, Carolyn Avia Harmon misappropriated $63,000 in customer funds between November 2006 and September 2009. She also failed…
Over five years, former broker James Scott McKee defrauded the customers of the brokerage firms where he worked out of nearly $1 million, using lies and omissions to induce them to invest in various real estate ventures in which he had a direct or indirect financial interest, according to a complaint filed by the Financial…
Evidently, it slipped the mind of one New York stockbroker that dead men can’t trade. Eric Anthony Foster, a stockbroker with Halcyon Cabot Partners Ltd., has been fined $10,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and suspended for three months for unauthorized trading in the account of a deceased customer while he worked for…
Clyde M. Thornburg, a former stockbroker with NEXT Financial Group Inc., was charged earlier this month with unsuitable short-term trading and switching in the accounts of elderly and unsophisticated investors. The FINRA Complaint On Feb. 9, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a complaint against Thornburg, a Florida-based registered representative with NEXT. The affected…
Philip Eckstein, a former MetLife Securities Inc. broker, was permanently barred from association with any members of the Financial lndustry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) after he converted $10,000 of an elderly customer’s money to his own use. FINRA announced the sanction in a February 8, 2012 Order accepting Eckstein’s offer of settlement after a disciplinary proceeding…
Former stockbroker Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., who pleaded guilty to mail fraud in September, has been barred for life by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for conversion of more than $800,000 in customer funds to his own use. According to FINRA, Thomas misappropriated the money from three vulnerable customers between December 2001, and July…
Former LPL Financial Corp. stockbroker Amrita Holden has been permanently barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for wrongfully converting about $187,000 in customer funds to her own use. While employed by LPL, Holden forged the signature of an elderly customer on distribution request forms for the customer’s Individual Retirement Account (IRA). These forms…
A purported class-action lawsuit brought by a broker-dealer against the predecessor to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., or FINRA, went out meekly this week, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied without explanation the plaintiff’s petition for the case to be heard. The suit, Standard Investment Chartered Inc v. National Association of Securities Dealers, was…
The migration of stockbrokers into the advisory arena through the marketing of brokers as “trusted advisers” and “financial advisors” over the years has fueled confusion among investors as to the services provided by stockbrokers and investment advisers as well as the level of protection. The dirty secret is that aside from filling out an Investment…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, recently filed a proposed rule change with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to to adopt NASD Rule 2830 (Investment Company Securities or mutual fund shares) as FINRA Rule 2341 (Investment Company Securities) with certain important changes. NASD Rule 2830 NASD Rule 2830 regulates brokerage firms’ activities in connection with…
Just when you thought that you heard it all. The New York Stock Exchange disciplined former Morgan Stanley stockbroker Charles Winitch of Scarsdale, New York, for unauthorized trading, churning or excessive activity, and breach of fiduciary duty with respect to the accounts of his customers. Mr. Winitch’s fraudulent conduct, however, relates to the accounts of…
According to the latest figures from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), through October 2008, investment arbitration claims are up 49% from 2007. In addition, during the first 10 months of 2008, more cases have been already been filed than were filed in all of last year. Most brokerage agreements contain provisions that any disputes…
Philadelphia, PA (MarketWire) November 6, 2008 –The Guiliano Law Group, P.C., a leading securities lawyer firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced today it is actively investigating and pursuing securities fraud claims against certain securities broker-dealers resulting from the risky or unsuitable recommendation of securities. Investment trusts, labor unions, pension funds, local municipalities, school boards and charitable…
Washington, D.C. – The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has imposed a $250,000 fine against J.P. Turner & Company, LLC of Atlanta, GA, for failing to have an adequate supervisory system designed to ensure that its registered representatives charged customers fair and reasonable commissions on stock trades. As part of the…