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So far Richard Frankowski has created 573 blog entries.

FINRA Files Complaint Against Dawn Bennett

FINRA filed a complaint against Dawn Bennett for failing to testify in its investigation of possible fraud related to her clothing company. Bennett did not appear for testimony on four different occasions between April and September of this year, violating FINRA's rules, according to FINRA's complaint. The charges come roughly a year after the regulator started looking into her for allegedly engaging in fraud while working at Western International Securities. Last year, Dawn Bennett allegedly solicited her employer's clients in a debt deal that supposedly was guaranteed by her retail clothing business at DJBennett.com. She sold roughly six million dollars worth of promissory and convertible notes to around thirty investors, a substantial number of whom were elderly and included Western's customers, FINRA's complaint states. FINRA discovered that she potentially misappropriated investor funds, committed fraud, and performed undisclosed outside business activities and private securities transactions. Western allowed Bennett to resign November of last year. “Evidence gathered during the investigation reveals that [...]

By |December 2nd, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Legal Matters, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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Learning a Lesson from Wells Fargo

In early September 2016, Wells Fargo was fined $185 million for opening up more than two million accounts under existing customers’ names, without those customers knowing about it, all in pursuit of the mighty dollar. It led to the firing of 5,300 employees. Wells Fargo’s CEO, John Stumpf, was denied his severance package after stepping down from his role, likely due to Elizabeth’s Warren eviscerating commentary and questions about his responsibility for the bank’s fraudulent practices. In particular, she asked about the practice of cross-selling – getting a bank customer to open multiple accounts with Wells Fargo – which she said “isn’t about getting customers what they need.... Cross-selling is all about pumping up Wells’ stock price.” She cited three years of quarterly calls to investors by Stumpf, in which he specifically mentions cross-selling successes as a reason to buy more stock in the company. https://youtu.be/xJhkX74D10M Cross-selling Cross-selling is not an illegal practice per se. Most people use the same [...]

By |November 30th, 2016|Fraud|
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Levi David Lindemann Receives 6-Year Sentence For Ponzi Scheme

Levi David Lindemann, a Minnesota investment advisor, received a six-year prison sentence for stealing from clients and operating a Ponzi scheme, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Lindemann was sentenced to 74 months imprisonment by a U.S. District Court, having pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal mail fraud and money-laundering charges. He was the owner and operator of Gershwin Financial Inc., which did business as Alternative Wealth solutions, from 2009 to 2014. “Lindemann abused his position of trust as a financial adviser to steal from his clients, including the elderly,” Mike Rothman, Minnesota's commerce commissioner, said. “Lindemann defrauded his victims by promising to put their money in legitimate, safe investments when he actually used the funds to pay for personal expenses and Ponzi-type payments to other clients to cover up and continue his fraud.” According to Levi David Lindemann's guilty plea, he solicited funds from roughly 50 investors and said he would “use the invested funds to buy secured [...]

By |November 28th, 2016|Broker Check, Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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Indexed Annuities Up, Variable Annuities Down In 2016

Fixed index annuity sales are on pace for a record year in 2016 as low interest rates and product features driver their popularity among broker-dealers and in the face of a potential new Labor Department investment-advice regulation that will make sales of these harder. Simultaneously, sales of variable annuities are projected to be their lowest in nearly two decades, continuing their multi-year dip, according to insurance industry group, Limra. Limra projects indexed annuity sales to hit $62 billion by year-end, which would represent growth of roughly 14% over the record $54.5 billion set in 2015. However, Limra estimates a 21% decrease in variable annuity sales in 2016, to $105 billion from $133 billion last year. That would be the lowest figure since 1998, when variable annuities saw $100 billion in sales. This is due in part as independent broker-dealers, the largest distribution channel for variable annuities, have started to embrace indexed annuities more. One reason [...]

By |November 22nd, 2016|Uncategorized|
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