Articles Posted in FINRA Rules

With the increase in FINRA enforcement activity in the last year, we hear daily from concerned RAs and other financial industry professionals – this post is intended to decode the basics of the process and offer some cautions to avoid pitfalls awaiting the unwary. 1. How can you become a target of a FINRA investigation?…

Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments (PKS) of Albany, New York, recently agreed to pay $3.4 million to a Native American tribe to resolve allegations that one of its brokers, Gopi Krishna Vungarala, took millions of dollars in undisclosed commissions on the tribe’s investments. Vungarala was not only a financial advisor to the tribe; he was also…

Kevin Richard Graetz, a former broker from New York, recently settled a FINRA complaint relating to his alleged failure to report $1 Million in tax liens over the course of seven years. FINRA requires registered personnel to disclose tax liens and any other unsatisfied judgments in their Form U4. As per FINRA’s settlement documents, in…

Michael James Malone, a FINRA arbitrator in Detroit, recently denied an expungement request from broker Kathie Lee Foreman. Foreman was seeking expungement of a customer complaint in connection with “unsuitable” investments allegedly leading to the, also alleged, loss of $20,000. Foreman, formerly of Sigma Financial Corp.; had also been accused by Troy William Johnson of…

Last April, FINRA announced that it had revised the sanction guidelines that apply when there has been a violation of a FINRA rule. Professionals in the industry whose activities are regulated by FINRA need to be aware of the scope and impact of these changes. The Sanction Guidelines do not directly prescribe specific penalties or…

A unit of TD Bank, a US subsidiary of Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank, has agreed to pay a $125,000 fine to resolve allegations that it failed to record the required review of 3.1 million emails. FINRA requires that all securities-related correspondence between registered representatives and the public receive supervisory review, pursuant to Rule 3010: “Each member…

New FINRA Rule 2165 (Financial Exploitation of Specified Adults) and Amendments to FINRA Rule 4512 (Customer Account Information) America’s population is rapidly aging. The number of US residents over the age of 65 is expected to double over the next 30 years. Today, seniors, specifically baby boomers, control 50% of all existing investable assets across…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering whether it will bring enforcement actions against Atlanta’s $205 billion-asset SunTrust Banks. SunTrust Investment Services, the bank’s broker-dealer arm, allegedly purchased pricey mutual funds on behalf of customers when more affordable alternatives were readily available. The SEC has made a “preliminary determination to recommend that the SEC…

Credit Suisse Securities U.S.A. LLC has agreed to pay $16.5 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) allegations that the firm violated anti-money laundering (AML) program regulations, supervision requirements and other policies, FINRA reported Monday. Specifically, FINRA found that Credit Suisse’s U.S. division relied solely on registered representatives to report suspicious trading, who then…

As the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) continues to crack down on broker-dealers with anti-money laundering program (AML)-related deficiencies, broker-dealers and AML compliance officers (AMLCOs) should take note of the most common AML program compliance deficiencies mentioned in recent FINRA enforcement actions. These top six areas of deficiency are the most likely focus areas of…