The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) entered an Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (“AWC”) letter today against former Waddell & Reed broker Robert Lee Basile, who worked in Waddell and Reed’s Riverside, California branch office. Basile was arrested earlier this year for “theft by caretaker” related to an elder abuse investigation into charges that he stole money from his own elderly mother.

According to FINRA’s findings, Basile converted over $130,000 from his elderly mother’s brokerage account at Waddell and Reed without her knowledge or consent. Basile’s conduct violated FINRA Rules 2150 and 2010, FINRA Rule 2150 which prohibit FINRA members from making improper use of a customer’s securities or funds and require associated persons like Mr. Basile to “observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.” 

Basile entered the securities industry in 2009 and became associated with Waddell and Reed in 2014. As a result of FINRA’s findings against him, Mr. Basile has received a lifetime ban from the securities industry. By accepting FINRA’s Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent letter, Mr. Basile neither admitted nor denied FINRA’s findings but is prohibited from making any public statement denying, or creating the impression, that the findings are without factual basis.

If you or someone you know has lost money as a result of an investment with Waddell and Reed or Robert Lee Basile, please call the Frankowski Firm at 888.741.7503 or fill out this contact form.