Jeffrey Hamilton Howell, of Chesterfield, Missouri, a stockbroker formerly registered with UBS Financial Services, Inc., was permanently barred from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity after consenting to findings that he made misstatements to a customer concerning account values, attempted to conceal such conduct by altering firm statements, and failed to cooperate with a FINRA investigation into allegations of his misconduct. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 20140434786-01 (Oct. 13, 2016).
According to the AWC, from September of 2008 through November of 2014, a firm customer was provided with at least three-hundred Stock Trading Reports by Howell which falsely stated the customer’s asset values. Apparently, the customer’s asset values were incorrectly stated in September of 2008 to the reflect that the customer had $289,000.00 more in assets than the customer actually had, and that the customer’s assets were incorrectly stated in November of 2014 by an estimated $3,000,000.00.
The AWC stated that account statements utilized by the firm were altered by Howell in order to cover up his misconduct. Howell reportedly made such account statements match up with the information contained within Howell’s disseminated Stock Trading Reports – which also contained false information. FINRA found that Howell’s conduct of creating false documents and transmitting such to his customer was violative of FINRA Rule 2010 and NASD Rule 2110.
FINRA launched an investigation into Howell’s misconduct, and requested on July 22, 2016, that Howell provide recorded testimony before FINRA personnel on August 11, 2016, per FINRA’s Rule 8210. The AWC stated that Howell reached out to FINRA personnel on July 29, 2016, in which he indicated that he understood what was expected of him, but that he would not be providing such testimony. FINRA found that Howell’s refusal to testify, and resulting absence from testifying, was conduct violative of FINRA Rules 2010 and 8210, leading to his permanent bar.
FINRA Public Disclosure reveals that Howell has been named in two customer initiated investment related arbitration claims. Specifically, on November 24, 2014, a customer requested $8,281.00 in damages per a customer initiated investment related arbitration claim against Howell, in which Howell was alleged to have omitted fees associated with an annuity that the customer purchased. On November 29, 2014, Howell was named in a pending customer initiated investment arbitration claim, in which the customer requested $1,096.477.00 in damages per allegations against Howell of making inaccurate statements in the course of advising the customer.
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