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FINRA Bars Jay Jules Gruenebaum

FINRA has permanently banned former broker Jay Jules Gruenebaum, who was terminated by his most recent employer, Stifel Nicolaus, for making unauthorized payments to clients. FINRA began its investigation of Gruenebaum after his June 16 termination and two customer complaints about mishandled accounts and particular representations he made to them, in addition to the unauthorized payments. FINRA requested in person testimony, but Jay Jules Gruenebaum failed to appear. "I would point out that the ban was for his unwillingness to travel to DC for an OTR [on-the-record testimony.] He had already decided to leave the industry and did not want to spend additional time and money," wrote Gruenebaum's attorney. Gruenebaum neither admitted nor denied FINRA's findings. Gruenebaum began his employment with Stifel Nicolaus in March 2013 and was terminated on May 23, 2016. This was not Gruenebaum's first termination. He was terminated by Merrill Lynch after six years of employment for altering client documents on several occasions, according to his BrokerCheck, which [...]

By |October 11th, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Press Releases & News|
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Mickey Long Banned From Selling Alt. Investments

The Texas State Securities Board has banned broker Mickey Long from recommending alternative investments, including nontraded REITs, after he concentrated a client's account with too many such investments. The state also suspended him for forty-five days and put him on heightened supervision by his firm, Calton & Associates Inc., for two years. Regulators have become increasingly concerned about high-commission products such as nontraded REITs over the past couple of years. In this case, “[t]he agent recommended that a client invest in certain alternative investments, namely nontraded REITs and private offerings of interests in oil and gas entities,” according to Mickey Long's central registration depository profile. “The client had elected within the client's account opening documents to have no more than 20% allocated to the 'highest risk/aggressive' risk tolerance level and no more than 60% allocated to the 'highest risk/moderate' risk tolerance level.” According to Texas' order, Long put almost 36% of the customer's invested assets into the former [...]

By |October 10th, 2016|Press Releases & News|
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FINRA Bars Broker Bernard McGee

FINRA barred broker Bernard McGee and ordered him to pay about $250,000 in penalties for fraudulent annuity recommendations he made to an elderly customer. According to FINRA, he surrendered four variable annuity policies owned by the 71 year old customer valued at roughly $500,000 and used the money to purchase a charitable gift annuity from a company that was later discovered to be a fraud. McGee allegedly made material misrepresentations to persuade the client to surrender the variable annuities, which made up approximately fifty percent of her net worth, and buy the charitable gift annuity by misrepresenting to her that she was facing a large tax liability, which the new annuity would offset. McGee also failed to disclose to his client that he would receive a ten percent commission of about $50,000 upon the purchase of the charitable gift annuity from the company 54Freedom, says FINRA. The client incurred about $36,000 in surrender charges. Because of the [...]

By |July 20th, 2016|FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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Broker To Pay $331k For Unsuitable Investments

A FINRA Arbitration panel ordered Frederick Baerenz, president and CEO of AOG Wealth Management, to pay $331,000 in compensatory damages after finding him liable of unsuitable trading. Baerenz allegedly misled his investors, Barbara and Roger Bond, regarding the risks of their direct private placements while investing in them between 2006 and 2008. Of the $1.3 million that was invested, Baerenz placed roughly $941,000 in private placements, according to Todd Zuckerbrod, the couple's attorney. “Even though the clients had signed a form saying that they know they are getting a high-risk investment, the panel thought it did not insulate the broker that they were unsuitable investments and he shouldn't have done that,” Zuckerbrod said. Baerenz disagreed: "While we believe that there should have been no award, we are gratified that the panel rejected two-thirds of their damage claims,” he said. The Claimants asked for about $1 million in damages but were awarded $331,000, and any other relief including punitive damages was [...]

By |July 14th, 2016|Press Releases & News, Broker Check, FINRA|
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