Financial Representatives Settle with FINRA Over Allegations Related to Excessive Commissions, Elder Financial Fraud, and Funneling Client Funds for Personal Gain

Without denying or admitting to the allegations, the following financial representatives have turned in their Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent in the securities cases made against them by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority:

New York Registered Rep. Fined $7,500 for Charging Excessive Commissions
Enver Rahman Alijaj has been suspended for two months from associating with any member of FINRA. He is accused of charging excessive commissions in equity security trades that took place in a member firm’s client account. The trades involved the buying of common stocks. The commissions for them ranged from 4.3% to 4.9% per trade.

According to FINRA, regardless of the trade amount or the stock involved, Alijaj would generally charge clients 4.5%-4.9% commission on all stock buys while not charging commission on sales. Per the SRO’s findings, the registered representative did not take into consideration the factors noted in NASD IM-24440 when deciding how much commission to charge clients. Instead, notes the regulator, the commissions were not justified by the market conditions, special services rendered, trade execution expenses, or any other factor. Alijaj must pay a $7,00 fine.

Rhode Island Financial Representative Accused of Elder Financial Fraud
Martin Benjamin Feibish has been banned from associating with any FINRA member following allegations that he created a scam to misappropriate over $5 million from an elderly client. He is accused of placing her money in bogus investment vehicles and forging the signatures of her relatives.

In addition to creating false promissory notes, false investment vehicles, and false documentation showing the purported mortgage-backed securities and IRS Form 1099s to persuade the client that her investments were legitimate, Feibish allegedly took the funds from these bogus investments and put them in a bank account under his control in the name of a company he set up to coordinate these sham investments. He even is said to have sent checks to the customer, claiming that that they were interest payments when actually the money was hers to begin with. Febbish is accused of getting her to reinvest the funds in more fictitious investments.

Pennsylvania Registered Principal Accused of Funneling Client Funds
Also barred from associating with any FINRA member is James Douglas Grimes, a registered principal from Lawrence Pennsylvania. He allegedly transferred $306,000 from the accounts of customers to a business account belonging to another customer without the approval or knowledge of any of the customers.

Per the findings, Grimes made these unauthorized transfers by turning in written journal request forms with client signatures that were forged. He also allegedly wrote checks, primarily “To Cash” worth $250,446 and then took the money from the business account before turning the proceeds for his personal use. The signature of the business account owner is said to have been forged by him. Through the falsifying of the checks and journal requests, FINRA claims he caused the books and records of his firm to be inaccurate.

If you think that you may have been similarly defrauded by a financial representative, contact our securities fraud law firm today.

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