SWS Financial Broker Suspended for Unsuitable Short-Term Trading Recommendations

David Lockey, a stockbroker formerly employed with SWS Financial Services, Inc. n/k/a Hilltop Securities Independent Network, Inc., submitted an Offer of Settlement to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in which he was assessed a deferred fine of $10,000, suspended for six months, and ordered to pay disgorgement of portion of his commissions of $46,447.38 and restitution to customers.  Without admitting or denying FINRA’s allegations, David Randall Lockey, of Carrollton Texas, consented to the entry of findings that he recommended and engaged in a pattern of unsuitable trading of open-end mutual funds (OMFs), unit investment trusts (UITs), and/or closed-end funds (CEFs) in the accounts of four customers. According to FINRA, David Lockey engaged in unsuitable short-term trading and switching in OMFs and/or UITs in the accounts of four customers.  In two of those four customers’ accounts, Mr. Lockey is alleged to have made unsuitable trades and switches in CEFs.  FINRA stated that David Lockey executed 37 trades in OMFs and/or UITs in the customers’ accounts in which they were held for less than one year. Those products are generally intended to be held long-term in order to off-set their fees.  He also allegedly executed 23 unsuitable transactions in CEFs in two of the four customers’ accounts. 

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SWS Financial Services Representative Fined for Converting Client Funds

William Charlton Mays of Corpus Christi, Texas was barred from association with any FINRA member due to his conversion and misuse of customer funds while he was a representative of SWS Financial Services. Around August 2011, while Mr. Mays was still a member of SWS, he recommended a client to invest $50,000 in stocks and commodities. Mr. Mays allegedly told his client the $50,000 investment would yield 6% annual return. On September 6, 2011, Mr. Mays deposited the client’s $50,000 check into a bank account for May’s Financial Group, an organization Mr. Mays controls. A month later, his client requested his funds be returned, but Mays initially told the investor he couldn’t get the funds (but later gave his client $40,000). FINRA found that between September 2011 and October 2011 Mr. Mays converted and used upwards of $30,000 from his clients’ investment for personal expenses. For violation of FINRA conduct Rule 2150(a) and Rule 2010, Mr. Mays was barred from association with any FINRA member, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, and ordered to pay restitution.

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