Michael B. Winegar of Salem, Oregon, a stockbroker with Wedbush Securities Inc., was barred by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) from associating with any FINRA member firm in any and all capacities after Winegar consented to findings that he converted funds from a customer. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 2015045014101 (Jan. 29, 2016).
According to the AWC, on July 7, 2014, an eighty-five-year-old investor provided Winegar with $100,000 after Winegar indicated to the customer that the customers? funds would be utilized in Winegar’s proposed creation of an investment advisory firm. The AWC stated that in return for the funds, Winegar would provide complimentary investment advice to the customer over a four-year period.
The AWC stated that Winegar’s true plans were to retire, as opposed to launching an investment advisory firm. Winegar reportedly never created the investment advisory firm as promised to the aforementioned elderly customer. Rather, the AWC stated that Winegar made arrangements with another one of the firm?s stockbrokers to sell his securities business. After doing so, Winegar reportedly left the securities industry while still in possession of the $100,000 that the elderly client provided him.
As part of Winegar’s aforementioned sale of his securities business, he agreed contractually to be prohibited from giving his former customers of the firm any investment advice. As opposed to using the money provided from the elderly customer as the customer expected, Winegar reportedly used the money to pay his credit card bills, his daughter’s student loans, and invest on his own behalf (rather than the customer). The elderly customer, according to the AWC, was never provided with repayment of the $100,000. Consequently, FINRA found that Winegar violated Rules 2150(a) and 2010 in connection with converting the elderly customer’s funds for Winegar’s personal use, and barred him accordingly.
According to FINRA BrokerCheck, in 2012, Winger was also subject to a complaint that he engaged in unauthorized transactions and the sale of unsuitable investments to an elderly person seeking damages of $201,256.10.
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