FINRA barred former PFS Investments, Inc. and HBW Securities, LLC broker Michael Willard Korson for improper use of customer funds invested in My Coupon Genie, Inc., a Korson-owned outside business activity that he failed to tell his employing firms about, allegedly misrepresenting on firm forms that he held no such outside business. The order barring Korson from the industry states that Korson failed to disclose private securities transactions in My Coupon Genie from 2011 through 2014.
The findings state that while associated with PFS, Korson founded and attempted to patent My Coupon Genie, Inc., an outside business he did not disclose to PFS. The documents reveal that Korson and his wife Andrea received a total of $40,000 in early 2012 from the My Coupon Genie checking account and that, in addition, Korson received $600 per month from this same account for the purpose of making car lease payments.
Investigators found credit card statements showing that after several of Korson's customers at PFS invested over $1 million in My Coupon Genie, Korson used the company's corporate credit card to make a series of personal purchases, including day spa and dental services, out of an account opened away from PFS—which is another violation of FINRA rules.
The findings state that although PFS permitted Korson to resign after allegations in 2013, Korson continued receiving investments for My Coupon Genie while serving as a representative for ensuing brokerage HBW Securities, where he remained until July 2014.
Korson's March 2015 BrokerCheck report indicates current employment at the financial services agency Korson Associates, My Coupon Genie and HBW Securities LLC of Simi Valley, California.
If you have invested with former PFS Investments and HBW Securities associate Michael Willard Korson in My Coupon Genie Inc., or with any broker or financial adviser whose operation of and solicitation of investments in an undisclosed and unapproved outside business activity has proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.