According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and several other government agencies, Carlton Cabot (Cabot) and Timothy Kroll (Kroll) the former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Cabot Investment Properties LLC (Cabot Investment), were arrested on charges of defrauding investors in numerous…
On April 27, 2015, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) published a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC), whereby Larry M. Phillips of The Phillips Group, in Woodland Hills, California, was sanctioned for his misconduct related to Phillips’ unlawful overcharging of several of his customers. In December 2009, Phillips…
Certain groups have been particularly vulnerable to advisors who engage in investment fraud. Among those groups well known are senior citizens who may have diminished capacity. Another group that serves as a common target are affinity frauds. In an affinity fraud the scammer preys upon members of a group or…
According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Roderick Yzaguirre (Yzaguirre) has been the subject of at least 10 customer complaints and one firm termination. Customers have filed complaints against Yzaguirre alleging that the broker made misrepresentations concerning investments and misappropriated their funds among other…
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Matthew Katke (Katke) recently waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court to participating in a multimillion securities fraud scheme. Katke was registered with RBS Securities, Inc. (RBS Securities), during the time of the DOJ’s investigation. Currently, Katke…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged a ring of eight individuals, including Izak Zirk de Maison (Zirk de Maison) who orchestrated the fraud (was named Izak Zirk Engelbrecht before taking the surname of his wife Angelique de Maison) for their roles in an alleged pump-and-dump scheme involving a…
According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Salvatore Gioe (Gioe) has been the subject of at least 11 customer complaints, one judgment and lien of over $197,000, and one regulatory action over the course of his career. Customers have filed complaints against Gioe alleging…
According to the records kept by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Wade Lawrence (Lawrence) has been suspended following the broker’s failure to comply with an arbitration award or settlement and by failing to comply with the regulator’s request for information concerning compliance. In addition, FINRA permanently barred Lawrence…
This article continues our prior post concerning The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recent sanctions of brokerage firm WFG Investments, Inc. (WFG) alleging a host of supervisory failures from March 2007, through January 2014. In one supervisory failure example involving suitability, FINRA found that between 2009, and 2013, a broker…
Recently, FINRA and the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an alert to warn investors that some low-priced “penny” stocks are being aggressively promoted to engage in investment fraud schemes. In many cases the stocks of dormant shell companies, businesses with nominal business operations, are susceptible to market…