The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Wells Fargo Advisors $35 million for unsuitable sales of complex single-inverse Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to customers without the investment experience or risk tolerance to make such trades. The type of ETF at issue is designed for short-term trading, typically a day, by betting against an index. If [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has fined and censured Chelsea Financial Services, of Staten Island, New York. FINRA found that, from January 2016 through July 2018, Chelsea Financial failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA’s rules related to suitability and excessive trading. [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has permanently barred McNally Financial Services Corporation representative Dennis Masaaki Nakamura from the securities industry based on his refusal to give testimony during FINRA’s investigation into allegations that he made unsuitable investment recommendations to his customers. The ban follows a customer’s allegation in November 2019 that Nakamura caused financial [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has permanently barred Capital City Securities representative Clint H. Keneer from the securities industry based on his refusal to give testimony during FINRA’s investigation into allegations that he made unsuitable investment recommendations to his customers. Keneer was previously sanctioned in 2010 for recommending unsuitable investments of below investment grade [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has fined and sanctioned NYLife Securities, LLC for supervisory failures related to sales of higher-risk mutual funds that were subject to significant volatility. FINRA found that, from September 2014 to December 2016, NYLife adjusted its customers’ risk tolerances and investment objectives to accommodate sales of higher-risk mutual funds without [...]
For the sixth consecutive year, Frankowski Firm attorney Robert Norton has been recognized by Super Lawyers magazine as a Rising Star in securities litigation in the Mid-South region. The Rising Star designation is awarded to only 2.5% of attorneys in the Mid-South under age 40. The annual selections for Super Lawyers, an independent lawyer rating [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has barred former Janney Montgomery Scott and Morgan Stanley broker John Joseph Cahill based on FINRA’s findings that Cahill refused to cooperate with FINRA’s investigation into allegations that Cahill comingled and/or took money belonging to his elderly client. According to Mr. Cahill’s FINRA BrokerCheck report, Cahill was fired by [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has fined and sanctioned Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. for failing to supervise short-term trading in Unit Investment Trusts (“UITs”). A Unit Investment Trust ("UIT") is an SEC-registered investment company that offers investors shares or "units" in a fixed portfolio of securities in a one-time public offering. A UIT terminates [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has barred former NYLIFE Securities broker Cristina Sabengsy based on FINRA’s findings that Sabengsy forged the signatures of two of her customers to facilitate unauthorized insurance transactions and obtain the commissions on those transactions. The forgeries occurred in 2017, while Sabengsy was employed in NYLIFE Securities’ Deerfield, Illinois branch [...]
Investors in Benefit Street Partners Realty Trust, Inc., formerly known as Realty Finance Trust, may have a right to recover their investment losses if their Benefit Street investment was recommended to them by a financial adviser who misrepresented the investment or made a recommendation that did not suit the investors’ risk tolerance. Benefit Street is [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has imposed a permanent ban against Securities America Advisors, Inc. representative Ronald James Roach, of Securities America Advisors’ Walnut Creek, California office. The SEC’s ban follows a court action in which the SEC alleged that Roach and co-conspirator Joseph Bayliss engaged in fraudulent securities offerings and a massive Ponzi [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has suspended broker Steve Baptist for 30 days and imposed a monetary sanction against him based on FINRA’s findings that Baptist placed six trades in the accounts of two customers who were deceased at the time of the trades. The trading activity occurred in March, November, and December 2017, while [...]
Robert H. Shapiro, the former CEO of the Woodbridge Group of Companies, pleaded guilty to running a $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 7,000 investors. The Woodbridge Group of Companies has appeared frequently in this blog space related to the ongoing investigations and penalties involving its vast Ponzi scheme operation. Earlier this year, a [...]
Hector May, the head of suburban New York registered investment advisory firm Executive Compensation Planners, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $8.4 million in restitution following a plea of guilty in an $11.5 million Ponzi scheme case. May, of Orangeburg, NY, pleaded guilty last December to allegations that he [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has imposed a permanent ban against former Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo broker Robert Frederico Montes, who most recently worked in Morgan Stanley’s Palm Harbor, Florida branch office. According to FINRA’s Acceptance, Waiver and Consent letter, FINRA received a tip in early 2019 that Montes may have misused the [...]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has imposed a regulatory fine and a one year suspension against former Wells Fargo broker Michael David Garris, formerly of Wells Fargo’s Los Angeles, California branch office. According to FINRA’s Acceptance, Waiver and Consent letter, Garris executed twenty-six (26) unauthorized transactions in a deceased customer’s account, over eight months [...]
Charles Kenahan Former New Hampshire governor Craig Benson has filed a $42.2 million claim against his Merrill Lynch broker, Charles Ernest Kenahan, of Newport, Rhode Island, according to Investment News reporting and Mr. Kenahan’s FINRA BrokerCheck Report. The former governor’s allegations include claims that Kenahan made unsuitable investments, engaged in unauthorized trading and excessive [...]
GPB CAPITAL HOLDINGS The Frankowski Firm is investigating claims related to the GPB Capital Holdings family of investment funds. Last month, GPB Capital reported “significant losses” in its funds with its two largest funds seeing declines of 25.4% and 39%. Investment News reported in March that GPB Capital Holdings is under investigation by [...]
Wedbush Securities Inc. will pay $8.1 million to settle SEC charges that it mishandled “pre-released” American Depository Receipts (ADRs), according to an SEC press release. ADRs are U.S. securities that represent shares of a foreign company and require a corresponding number of foreign shares to be held in custody at a depositary bank. Pre-release allows [...]
An arbitration panel for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has made findings against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC and entered an award against the firm of over $500,000 in favor of a couple who filed claims against the firm alleging that Morgan Stanley sold them unsuitable investments. The couple alleged that their Morgan Stanley [...]
