The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has suspended First Allied Securities broker Brian Donnelly for four months beginning June 22, 2022, following an investigation into multiple customer complaints. FINRA found that Donnelly recommended unsuitable investments to customers and violated FINRA’s rules by participating in a private securities action without knowledge of First Allied Securities, also known as “selling away” from his firm.

FINRA’s Findings Against Brian Donnelly

According to FINRA, Brian Donnelly introduced a client to the President of a company who was seeking investments in limited partnership units. Donnelly’s client invested $250,000 into the business and Donnelly acted as an ongoing intermediary between the customer and the business but never notified First Allied.

Additionally, FINRA states that Donnelly’s client liquidated several securities that he held at First Allied to make this large investment. Donnelly communicated with this client from a personal email and his personal phone number without forwarding any of the correspondence or business dealings to the firm to keep this investment a secret in violation of FINRA rules 4511 and 2010. FINRA rules require its brokers, “in the conduct of their business, to observe high standards of commercial honor and just equitable principles of trade.”

Based on FINRA’s findings, Donnelly consented to a four-month suspension of his broker’s license. Donnelly was doing business under Manhattan Ridge Advisors and was registered with First Allied Securities in Iselin, New Jersey until May 21, 2021.

Brian Donnelly has a history of customer complaints alleging unsuitable investment recommendations. According to his FINRA BrokerCheck report, some of Donnelly’s clients who invested in GPB complained that the investment was unsuitable after there was a  suspension of the distributions.

In 2015, Brian Donnelly was permitted to resign from Gitterman Wealth Management after the firm indicated it would terminate him for initiating transactions that would have generated multiple commissions on a single trade and for exceeding the firm’s limits on non-traded REIT concentration.