\t\t\t\tThe Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has imposed an over $1 million penalty on Fidelity Investment’s Fidelity Brokerage Services (Fidelity) for failing to protect clients from a financial fraud committed by a woman pretending to be a broker for the firm. Lisa A. Lewis (Lewis) stole over $1 million from customers, most of whom were elderly investors. FINRA says that the firm’s retail brokerage arm should have been able to detect the scam, but Lewis was able to perpetrate her fraud because Fidelity’s supervisory controls were lax. <\/p>\n
According to the self-regulatory organization (SRO), from August 2006 to May 2013, Lewis told customers from a firm she was fired from for purported check-kiting and improperly borrowing customer funds that she was with Fidelity, when she had no such connection to the firm. Lewis set up Fidelity accounts by using the personal data of nine people and placed the accounts in their name, as well as established joint accounts with them in which she named herself co-owner. Lewis then had all communication regarding the accounts sent to her. Lewis was able to set up over 50 individual and joint accounts at the firm. She proceeded to convert assets from these accounts for her own benefit.<\/p>\n