Blog Posts in October, 2015
Posted on Oct 29, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA ordered payment of over $18 million in restitution to customers overcharged for mutual fund transactions at five member firms: Edward D. Jones & Co., LP; Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc.; ...
Continue reading "FINRA Orders 5 Firms to Pay $18 Million in Restitution for Overcharged Mutual Funds" »
Posted on Oct 27, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA issued an investor alert on binary options trading, pointing to similar Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and SEC alerts that already warn investors as to the dangers and extreme risk ...
Continue reading "New FINRA Investor Alert Warns of All-or-Nothing or Binary Options Trading Fraud Risk" »
Posted on Oct 20, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA suspended former Wells Fargo financial advisor James Gavin Christianson for exercising discretion to complete several hundreds of purchases and sales in customer accounts without obtaining ...
Continue reading "James Christianson Fined, Suspended for Unauthorized Use of Discretion" »
Posted on Oct 16, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA sanctioned six broker-dealers a combined $740,900—which includes fines and restitution—for failing to apply discounts to eligible customer purchases of non-traded real estate ...
Continue reading "Voya, Transamerica, Investacorp, JP Turner, National Planning & Cetera Fined for Excess REIT Sales Charges" »
Posted on Oct 15, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
The Managed High Yield Plus Fund Inc. Board of Directors approved a proposal to liquidate the fund in 2016, based on the recommendation of UBS Global Asset Management (Americas) Inc., which is the ...
Continue reading "UBS Managed High Yield Plus Fund Board Approves Liquidation Plan" »
Posted on Oct 14, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA filed a disciplinary complaint against broker John Joseph Arnold, formerly of Merrill Lynch's Newport Beach, California branch, alleging that he failed to confirm the identity of a customer ...
Continue reading "FINRA Files Complaint Against John Joseph Arnold, Alleging His False Statements Allowed Imposter to Steal $127,200" »
Posted on Oct 9, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA barred former HSBC Securities broker Emily S Pao of HSBC's San Gabriel, California branch for refusing to cooperate with FINRA's investigation into allegations that Pao improperly ...
Continue reading "Emily S Pao Barred for Failure to Cooperate with Conversion Investigation" »
Posted on Oct 7, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA expelled Halcyon Cabot Partners, Ltd. and barred executives Michael Morris and Ronald Heineman for fraud, sales practice abuses and supervisory/anti-money laundering (AML) failures, including an ...
Continue reading "FINRA Expels Halcyon Cabot Partners and Bars CEO Michael Morris, CCO Ronald Heineman for Fraud, Fee Kickback Scheme" »
Posted on Oct 1, 2015 By Michael Edmiston
FINRA suspended former Park Avenue Securities (Las Vegas, NV) broker Todd Alan Shanholtzer and fined him $10,000 for mishandling customer funds related to the surrender and reinvestment of a ...
Continue reading "FINRA Fines, Suspends Todd Shanholtzer for Mishandling, Misusing $58k of Customer Funds in Variable Annuity Product" »