FINRA fined and suspended former Morgan Stanley of Beverly Hills broker Nikolay Zotenko for sending over 1,150 retail communications advertising a private placement to prospective customers. Making matters worse, many of Zotenko's messages—which were sent in early 2021—came even after Morgan Stanley explicitly denied Zotenko's request to send them.
According to FINRA's AWC #2021071532701, Nikolay Zotenko (CRD #6334022) sent emails describing an "Exclusive Venture Capital Investment Opportunity" that reflected a private placement investment Morgan Stanley offered, but failed to present the product in a fair and balanced way, with no sound basis for investors to reference while evaluating it.
Because of Zotenko's failure to adequately disclose or portray risks, including that the investment was speculative and illiquid, FINRA further cited Zotenko for making unwarranted and misleading statements. Morgan Stanley admonished its broker for making unwarranted promissory statements.
When Morgan Stanley became aware of Zotenko's emails and denied approval to send more, Zotenko nonetheless continued sending the violative material to prospective customers.
Morgan Stanley discharged Zotenko in April 2021 for sending prohibited, unapproved emails about an investment opportunity, and for taking steps after being denied to avoid the firm's supervisory reviews.
If you invested with Southern California broker Nikolay Zotenko or with any other representative or investment adviser who sent misleading, unbalanced, or downright false emails about an excessively risky securities product or investment opportunity—such as through promissory statements, or marketing material that guarantees a specific minimum yield or return—and subsequent investment in such an unsuitable and unapproved private placement away from the firm has proven harmful to your financial interests, please call an experienced FINRA arbitration attorney at The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation into these potential damages.