FINRA Fines and Suspends Deutsche Bank Broker Gregory Barr for Discretionary Trade Violations

Gregory Barr., a Boca Raton, Florida based broker formerly employed with Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. (Deutsche Bank) and Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (Raymond James), submitted a letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent in which he consented to, but did not admit to or deny, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he entered discretionary trades in the accounts of four customers without the necessary prior written customer authorization. FINRA found that while employed as a General Securities Representative with Deutsche Bank, Gregory Edward Barr exercised discretion in four of his customers’ accounts.  He placed sell orders for the customers in the same stock.  Although these customers had allegedly given Mr. Barr verbal authorization to sell their positions if the stock decreased in price, he allegedly failed to discuss the transactions with his customers on the day of the sell orders.  FINRA further alleged Deutsche Bank had not approved the customers’ accounts for discretionary trading.  Therefore, none of the accounts had been approved for the discretionary trades made by Mr. Barr. 

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