The Frankowski Firm is investigating potential claims against FINRA-expelled broker Steven Pagartanis, of Long Island, New York. Mr. Pagartanis was recently charged by the SEC and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office on allegations that he defrauded investors in an $8 million scam. Mr. Pagartanis was also permanently barred from the securities industry by FINRA in April after refusing to appear at a FINRA hearing into whether Pagartanis made fraudulent misrepresentations to customers and misappropriated customer funds.

According to the SEC and DA charges, Mr. Pagartanis carried out an investment scam in which he misled investors into thinking they were investing in a land development company, holding out these “investments” as safe and promising guaranteed monthly interest. Instead, the checks, totaling approximately $8 million, were made payable to an entity that Pagartanis secretly controlled. Pagartanis misappropriated the customers’ funds to pay personal expenses and make “interest” payments on the phony investments, according to the allegations.

Mr. Pagartanis’s FINRA BrokerCheck report reveals that he has racked up eleven disclosure events in the past fifteen months, including employment separations from two different brokerage firms: Cadaret Grant & Co., Inc., and Lombard Securities, Inc., following customer complaints at each. Mr. Pagartanis had worked in those firms’ Setauket, New York branch offices.

According to the BrokerCheck report, Mr. Pagartanis and his former employer firms are the subject of eight pending FINRA arbitration claims filed by customers alleging over $7.5 million in total investment losses in unsuitable and fraudulent investments, as well as civil claims related to the criminal allegations that Mr. Pagartanis had customers write checks payable to a company that was not an approved investment by his employer firms.

The Frankowski Firm is a boutique law firm with a practice focused on securities litigation and arbitration. If you or someone you know lost money as a client of Steven Pagartanis, Cadaret Grant & Co., Inc., or Lombard Securities, Inc. due to unsuitable, misrepresented, or unauthorized transactions, please call the Frankowski Firm at 888.741.7503 or fill out this contact form.