Florida Stockbroker Misconduct Lawyer - Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce

Aug 4, 2017

FINRA Fines and Suspends Former Raymond James Broker for Discretionary Trade Violations

William McWilliams, a registered representative formerly employed with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. (Raymond James), submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC) in which he consented to, but did not admit to or deny, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) findings that he exercised discretion at least 28 times in eight customer accounts without the necessary prior written authorization. FINRA found that William Harrison McWilliams, of Columbia, Missouri, failed to obtain the necessary written authorization from his customers or his member firm when he exercised discretion in the accounts of eight customers. According to FINRA, Mr. McWilliams exercised discretionary trading authority in response to customer liquidation requests six times in four customers’ accounts without the requisite prior written authorization from customers and without the accounts accepted as discretionary by his member firm. Further, FINRA found that Mr. McWilliams exercised discretionary trading authority at least 22 times in four other customer accounts without discussing the trades with the customers on the day of the trades, which was required by the firm.

Jul 11, 2017

Former National Securities Broker Permanently Barred for Unauthorized Account Transactions

Former National Securities Corporation (National Securities) broker, Glenn McDowell, has been barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for executing 38 unauthorized transactions in his customer’s account in a three month time period without the authority to do so. Glenn McDowell, of Springfield Gardens, New York, caused his client to suffer losses of $64,740.08 as a result of the unauthorized trades. According to FINRA, Mr. McDowell entered 38 unauthorized transactions in his customer’s account in a three month time frame. FINRA deemed the number of unauthorized trades over the course of just three months to be quantitatively egregious misconduct. Further, FINRA found that Mr. McDowell sometimes bought and then sold, or sold and then bought, the same securities within a few days. By engaging in such misconduct, he generated $5,300 in commissions for himself while causing nearly $65,000 in losses to his customer.

Jun 26, 2017

AXA Broker Suspended for Unsuitable Mutual Fund Trading

James Davis Trent, of Lexington, South Carolina, was named a Respondent in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint for allegedly recommending and executing unsuitable mutual fund trades in the accounts of elderly retirees, causing the customers to suffer substantial losses. FINRA alleged that while employed with AXA Advisors, LLC, James Trent engaged in a pattern of recommending unsuitable short-term trading of Class A mutual fund shares to four customers. In the 14 transactions at issue, Mr. Trent is alleged by FINRA to have recommended the sale of Class A mutual fund shares within less than a year, on average just six months. This unsuitable trading activity resulted in the customers incurring over $6,000 in unnecessary sales charges and a commission, for Mr. Trent, of nearly $3,000.

Mar 3, 2017

K.C. Ward Financial Broker Barred for Unsuitable and Unauthorized Trading

Craig David Dima, a stockbroker formerly employed with K.C. Ward Financial, submitted an Offer of Settlement to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in which he was barred from association with any FINRA member. Without admitting or denying FINRA’s allegations, Craig Dima consented to the entry of findings that he made unauthorized and unsuitable trades in the IRA account of an elderly retiree. According to FINRA, Mr. Dima sold nearly all of his 73-year old customer’s Colgate-Palmolive stock, which she had accumulated during her 28 years of employment with the company. FINRA alleged that on 11 occasions, Mr. Dima sold the customer’s shares without permission and even after the customer told him not to sell the stock. When Mr. Dima’s elderly customer confronted him about the sales, he misrepresented to her that the transactions were caused by a computer glitch. As a result of Mr. Dima’s unauthorized sales, the customer was charged more than $375,000 in mark-ups, mark-downs, and fees. Further, the customer was deprived of substantial dividends she would have received had she held the Colgate shares as she had intended. FINRA found that the unauthorized, unsuitable trades executed by Mr. Dima totaled approximately $15 million in his customer’s retirement account. In the Order Accepting Offer of Settlement, Mr. Dima was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.

Sep 30, 2016

National Securities Broker Fined and Suspended for Fraudulent Wire Transfers

Stephanie Lynn Fagenson, of New York, NY, allegedly caused two fraudulent wire disbursements to be transferred from her customer’s account to a third-party bank. According to FINRA, Ms. Fagenson received an email from an imposter posing as her customer requesting $100,000 to be wired to a third-party bank account. Ms. Fagenson allegedly processed the wire request without orally confirming the request with the customer, as was required by her member firm. Two weeks later, Ms. Fagenson purportedly received another email from the imposter requesting another wire transfer. This time, the request was for $200,000 and, again, Ms. Fagenson allegedly processed the wire without orally confirming with her customer. Ten days following the second wire transfer, Ms. Fagenson supposedly found out in a conversation with her customer that the customer’s email account had been hacked and that none of the wire requests had come from the customer. FINRA assessed a fine of $5,000 and suspended Ms. Fagenson from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for 45 days. The suspension is in effect from August 15, 2016 through September 28, 2016.

Feb 22, 2016

Huntington Investment Company Broker Named in FINRA Complaint Alleging Unsuitable UIT Recommendations

David Michael Miller, a former registered representative with Huntington Investment Company (Huntington) was named a respondent in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint alleging unsuitable Unit Investment Trust (UIT) recommendations. The complaint alleges that Mr. Miller, of Columbus, Ohio, had no reasonable basis to recommend UIT purchases which totaled approximately $5.4 million in 129 customer accounts. Further, the complaint alleges that Mr. Miller failed to exercise the necessary due diligence with respect to the UIT recommendations. Specifically, the complaint states that Mr. Miller allegedly did not read the prospectuses, did not know that the underlying closed-end funds were leveraged, and did not know that certain of the closed-end funds invested in junk bonds and that the UIT prospectuses advised that investing in such bonds should be viewed as speculative and subject to numerous risks, including higher interest rates, economic recession, possible downgrades, and defaults of interest and/or principal. The complaint further alleges that Mr. Miller negligently misrepresented and omitted material facts to customers in connection with their UIT purchases totaling $964,000. Also, Mr. Miller allegedly misrepresented to this particular customer that the UIT investment was “safe,” and that if the customer hold the investment until termination of the trust, he would receive his entire principal investment plus the 5% interest payment received during the term of the trust.

Oct 9, 2015

Fort Myers, Florida Raymond James Representative Barred

Mark Bullivant of Fort Myers, Florida submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to the Department of Enforcement of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for allegedly failing to provide information and an on-the-record testimony in connection to an ongoing FINRA investigation. Bullivant entered the securities industry in 2001 when he became associated with a FINRA member firm. Between April 2012 and December 2013, Bullivant was associated with Raymond James and Associates, Inc. (Raymond James) as a General Securities Representative.

Jun 23, 2015

DeWaay Advisory Stockbroker Receives Complaint for Misrepresentation

FINRA has filed a complaint against Lawrence LaBine of Fountain Hills, Arizona for alleged misrepresentations and omissions of material fact. LaBine, who was a representative at DeWaay Advisory LLC between 2007 and 2010, allegedly sold senior debentures (Series D) issued by Domin-8 to over 100 clients guaranteeing them that they would preserve their initial principal. At the time (April-August 2009), LaBine was receiving updates on Domin-8’s poor financial condition. FINRA alleges that LaBine knew of and willfully failed to disclose Domin-8’s perilous financial condition to his clients in connection with those sales. In September 2009, Domin-8 filed for bankruptcy.