Calton & Associates - Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce

Apr 3, 2015

Complaint Filed Against Former Calton & Associates Representative for Alleged Bond Mark Ups

A complaint filed against Calton & Associates Inc., located in Tampa, Florida, and Kenneth Harter of Roland, Arkansas alleges that they “charged customers prices that were not reasonable in municipal bond transactions.” The complaint alleges that R.M. Duncan Securities, acting through two of its representatives and, eventually, Calton & Associates and Mr. Harter, sold bonds to its customers at unfair prices. R.M. Duncan Securities representatives allegedly solicited three elderly customers to purchase a total of $215,000 par value of the bonds. According to FINRA, the representatives told their clients the bonds “would receive an 11% tax-free yield on the bond interest payments, despite the fact that the bonds were in default and not paying full interest.” Calton & Associates and Mr. Harter allegedly solicited customers to purchase bonds that were purchased from the R.M. Duncan Securities at a price that was 60% higher than the prevailing market price. FINRA alleges that R.M. Duncan Securities and Calton & Associates worked in “concert” to make the inter-dealer appear higher than the market price to pull off their scheme. FINRA alleges the brokerage firms failed to supervise their municipal securities activities and prices and are currently under investigation.

FINRA Fines and Suspends Calton & Associates’ Dennis Witthoeft for Discretionary Trade Violations

Dennis Todd Witthoeft, a Wesley Chapel, Florida based broker with Calton & Associates, Inc. (Calton), consented to, but did not admit to or deny, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he improperly exercised discretion in a customer’s account. While employed with Calton & Associates, Inc., of Tampa, Florida, FINRA found that Dennis Witthoeft exercised improper discretion when he effected a total of 61 stock and option transactions in a customer’s account at the end of the business days on which the customer had authorized the transations. Further, Dennis Witthoeft allegedly neglected to obtain written authorization from the customer allowing such use of discretion and the account had not been accepted by Calton as a discretionary account.