The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is setting up a team made up of six members to look at stockbrokers with long records of investor complaints and violations, as well as those that engage in “cockroaching”-which involves brokers moving among beleaguered firms. The crack down comes amidst pressure from lawmakers on…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is barring broker Bambi Holzer from the securities industry. Holzer is known for representing rich and famous Beverly Hills clients and many others. Last week, Holzer who has been suspended by FINRA since September, settled with the SRO over the broker fraud charges. The regulator…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is barring ex-JPMorgan Chase Securities, LLC (JPM) brokers Jimmy E. Caballero and Fernando L. Arevalo from the securities industry for allegedly stealing $300,000 from an elderly widow who suffers from diminished mental capacity. Although the bank reportedly was not involved in the misconduct, it has…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel says that National Planning Corp. must pay a $6.2 million REIT arbitration award to Minnesota investors Stacy and Ronnie Erickson. The Erickson and trusts on their behalf accused the independent brokerage firm and its ex-brokers Christopher R. Olson of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty,…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has banned ex-Success Trade Securities Inc. broker Jinesh “Hodge” Brahmbhatt from the industry. The broker is accused of selling over $18 million in fraudulent promissory notes to 58 investors, which included many National Football League and National Basketball Association athletes. Brahmbhatt’s registered investment adviser firm…
Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. (MER) must now pay Massachusetts securities regulators a fine for allegedly failing to supervise a broker who went on to defraud customers. According to regulators and prosecutors, when she was with Merrill, now ex-broker Jane E. O’Brien borrowed over $2 million of clients’…
The North American Securities Administrators Association has issued its yearly list of the top investor threats. The list is compiled through a poll of its member state securities administrators. With the enactment of Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which takes away the advertising restrictions when it comes to soliciting securities…
FINRA is fining GlobaLink Securities Registered Principal Junhua Michael Liao $20,000. According to the SRO’s findings, through Liao, the firm executed an agreement to sell and market a Regulation D offering comprised of promissory notes for a medical receivables financing company. The financial firm then is said to have sold…
Texas Registered Rep Under Investigation for Financial Fraud Declined to Turn in Supplementary Documents Conrad Tambalo Bautista, a registered representative in Texas, is now barred from associating with any other Financial Industry Regulatory Authority member in any capacity. While not denying or admitting to the SRO’s findings, Bautista agreed to…
The New York Times is reporting that on May 24, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel of arbitrators granted Wells Fargo (WFC) broker Michele Kief ‘s request that it recommend that the securities complaint, in which the bank settled for $125,000 allegations of fraud and negligence related to her actions,…