Paul William Marks, of Angola, New York, a stockbroker formerly registered with Thrivent Investment Management Inc., has been fined and suspended from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity by consenting to findings that he forged customer account documents, failed to execute customer instructions and made misrepresentations to his firm in the course of its investigation into his activities. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 2016050372601 (Sept. 8, 2017).
According to the AWC, in April of 2015, Marks arranged for a $22,867.93 transfer into a customer’s newly established mutual fund account, where $6,500.00 was supposed to be transferred yearly into a fixed annuity that the customer maintained. Apparently, the customer and Marks met in June of 2015, where Marks obtained the customer’s documentation to authorize the transactions; however, he failed to execute the customer’s annuity deposit from the mutual fund account in a timely manner. The customer’s signature was then forged by Marks on August 4, 2016, to effect the transaction.
The AWC reported that the customer’s signature was forged on a January 2016 transfer request document as well as a disclosure form. Thrivent evidently became aware of Marks’ misconduct once the customer contacted the firm, where the customer confirmed that she never signed documentation to effect transfers. The AWC revealed that Marks denied having engaged in forgery when Thrivent questioned him about his activities. FINRA found that Marks failed to execute the customer’s transactions timely and misrepresented his activities to his firm in that regard; conduct violative of FINRA Rule 2010.
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