Joseph Abbate, of Garden City, New York, a stockbroker formerly registered with Wells Fargo Clearing Services, has been fined $5,000.00 and suspended from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity by consenting to findings that he placed trades in customer investment accounts without their approval. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, No. 2016051173901 (Dec. 1, 2017).
According to the AWC, from January of 2015 to September of 2015, during which time Abbate was associated with Wells Fargo, he effected about one-hundred transactions in the investment accounts owned by five Wells Fargo customers. Evidently, Abbate failed to communicate with customers on the days transactions were consummated.
The AWC stated that the firm failed to consider the customers’ investment accounts as approved for purposes of discretionary trading, and he never obtained written authorization from customers to exercise discretion in their accounts. FINRA found Abbate’s conduct to be violative of FINRA Rule 2010 and NASD Conduct Rule 2510(b).
FINRA Public Disclosure confirms that a customer initiated investment related arbitration claim involving Abbate’s conduct was settled for $7,500.00 in damages founded on accusations that Abbate accumulated excessive margin trading debt in a customer’s account, breached his fiduciary duties, churned the customer’s account, and effected unauthorized over-the-counter equities trades. National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Arbitration No. 01-01587 (Oct. 17, 2002).
Additionally, on August 5, 2016, a customer initiated investment related complaint involving Abbate’s conduct was settled for $22,500.00 in damages resting upon accusations that Abbate failed to inform the customer about commissions that were assessed to the customer on closed end fund purchases, and effected unauthorized transactions in the customer’s account.
Abbate was fired from Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC on August 1, 2017, founded on allegations that he provided false information to Wells Fargo in the course of the firm’s investigation into a customer initiated investment related complaint.
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