FINRA Fines and Suspends Money Concepts Broker for Discretionary Trade Violations

Guy Conger, a registered representative with Money Concepts Capital Corp. (Money Concepts), 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 more than 200 times in two customer accounts without the necessary written authorization. FINRA found that Guy Charles Conger, of San Antonio, Texas, improperly used discretion in two customer accounts to place trades without written authority or acceptance from his member firm of the account as discretionary.  According to FINRA, Mr. Conger also mismarked approximately 2,000 order tickets as “unsolicited” when they were “solicited,” and mismarked at least 200 order tickets as not discretionary when they were discretionary.  Further, FINRA’s findings state that Mr. Conger made misleading and unwarranted statements in his e-mail communications with customers.

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NEXT Financial Representative Suspended for Misrepresenting a Variable Annuity Investment

Dion Rey Padilla, of San Antonio, Texas, submitted an Offer of Settlement to the Department of Enforcement of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for allegedly making an unauthorized purchase of a variable annuity for a customer and misrepresenting to the customer on numerous occasions that it was not a variable annuity. FINRA found that, while employed by NEXT Financial Group, Inc., Dion Padilla misrepresented a variable annuity investment to his customers, who stressed to him that they did not want any of their funds invested in a variable annuity due to the fees and their desire for liquidity.  Mr. Padilla allegedly presented a variable annuity application to the customer, assuring him that it was not for a variable annuity, but a type of managed money investment.  Mr. Padilla’s misrepresentations, however, were false and misleading.

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