UBS Financial Services Stockbroker Barred For Outside Business Activity

Victor Lee, of New York, New York, a stockbroker formerly registered with UBS Financial Services Inc., has been permanently barred from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member firm in any capacity after consenting to findings that he engaged in an outside business activity which was not authorized by his firm, and falsified documents in connection with the outside business activity. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 20150483596-01 (Jan. 9, 2017).
According to the AWC, in 2012, while Lee was registered with UBS Financial Services Inc., he took up a second position as an assistant to a tax preparer, whom Lee reportedly claimed to be a partner of. In this role, partnership agreements were created by Lee for the benefit of the clients of the tax preparer. Apparently, UBS Financial Services was not apprised of Lee’s outside business activity, and did not approve of it.
The AWC additionally stated that Lee, in connection with his outside business activity, corresponded with the tax preparer’s clients by utilizing his UBS e-mail to make it seem to the tax preparer’s clients as though UBS had authorized Lee’s work to be performed for them. FINRA found that Lee’s conduct of engaging in an unauthorized outside business activity was violative of FINRA Rules 2010 and 3270.
The AWC additionally revealed that partnership agreements had been created by Lee throughout his outside business activity. FINRA indicated that these agreements were created for customers which Lee knew the New York State Department of Tax and Finance pursued audits of. Lee was supposedly cognizant that audits had been conducted into the clients’ deductions claimed on tax returns which the clients had previously filed.
The AWC reported that Lee knew, at the time of the audits, that there were no agreements which had been documented in reference to the partnerships. Approximately fifty partnership agreements were evidently created and backdated by Lee to reflect the dates in which the clients’ businesses began as indicated on clients’ prior returns.
Apparently, Lee, as an individual with no prior tax or legal proficiencies, failed to research the nature of the clients’ partnerships to ensure that they existed at the dates which the agreements portrayed. FINRA found that Lee’s conduct, which FINRA claimed could have caused auditors and other individuals and entities to be misled, was violative of FINRA Rule 2010, which led to his permanent bar.
FINRA Public Disclosure reveals that prior to FINRA’s disciplinary action against Lee, he was terminated by UBS Financial Services Inc. based upon allegations that he did not provide the firm with proper disclosure of his outside business activity, and engaged in conduct which exceeded his authority while employed with the firm.