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Oppenheimer & Co. Fined By FINRA

FINRA fined Oppenheimer & Co. $3.4 Million for failures in reporting internal discipline, giving information in arbitration cases, and offering sales discounts to customers. Between 2008 and 2016, the firm was on average four years late making 365 filings with FINRA, pertaining to disciplinary actions it took against its own brokers and arbitration and litigation settlements. The regulator also said that from 2010 to 2013, Oppenheimer did not provide documents to seven claimants in an arbitration case against ex-registered representative Mark Hotton. Oppenheimer has already paid $6 million to settle the claims alleged in that case. Additionally, FINRA said the firm overcharged 825 customers $1,010,327 between 2009 and 2015 for mutual funds shares because it did not apply the appropriate fee waiver. FINRA issued a $1.575 million fine and forced Oppenheimer to pay $703,122 to the arbitration claimants and $1,142,619 to its mutual fund customers. “It's important for firms to [...]

By |November 18th, 2016|FINRA, Press Releases & News|
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Mark Tauzin Suspended For Unsuitable Trading

FINRA suspended former LPL Financial broker Mark Tauzin for engaging in unsuitable short-term trading of unit investment trusts as well as maintaining blank, signed forms in customer files. He was suspended for eight months from any FINRA registered broker-dealer, fined $20,000 and required to pay $205,000 plus interest to 14 sets of clients. That sum represents the commissions he generated from November 2012 to November 2014 by buying and selling UITs, according to the settlement. Over the two year period, while he was registered with LPL, Tauzin recommended the purchase of UITs, which typically carry significant upfront charges, and the subsequent sales of those products within a year of purchase, according to FINRA. The UITs Tauzin recommended had maturity dates of 24 months or longer and carried initial sales charges ranging from 2.5% to 3.95%. “Within the accounts of these 14 households, Tauzin effected 215 UIT transactions that were sold within a 12-month time period,” according to FINRA. [...]

By |October 21st, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Press Releases & News|
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PIABA Issues Report On BrokerCheck’s Shortcomings

 PIABA, the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, issued a new report stating that FINRA's BrokerCheck, the primary resource the public uses to learn about brokers and their firms, fails to include vital information, including the reasons a financial professional's employment was terminated and other details investors should have before deciding whether to invest with them. The PIABA report says that information about bankruptcies, tax liens, and scores on relevant industry examinations also should be included on the system. The PIABA report additionally states that after the group published a March 2014 report that first criticized FINRA's broker information repository, the self-regulatory organization “made things worse” by spending millions to fund an advertising campaign to encourage investors to use the system. “FINRA cannot be allowed to continue to hype a broken system it knows is of limited utility,” said Hugh D. Berkson, president of PIABA and a report co-author. FINRA responded to the report, saying it is always looking for ways [...]

By |October 20th, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA|
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Debra Ferrara Suspended For Fraudulent Wire Transfer

Debra Ferrara, a former client administrator at Morgan Stanley, was fined and suspended by FINRA for fraudulently transferring a total of $108,680 out of a client's account to third party bank accounts and for falsifying records. Morgan Stanley terminated Ferrara in December 2011 for falsifying information recorded in its books. Ferrara agreed to be fined $5,000 and suspended from the securities industry for sixty days. Ferarra had provided administrative support to a financial adviser who was responsible for the targeted client's account. In November 2011, Ferrara received an email instruction forwarded by the adviser to process a wire transfer from a client's account to a third party bank account. They did not realize that the instruction was sent by an impostor who hacked the email account of the client's authorized person. According to Morgan Stanley's rules, Ferrara should have contacted the authorized person to verbally confirm the transfer instruction and record the event on the firm's internal records, but she [...]

By |October 18th, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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