Advisor Thomas Mikolasko, (Mikolasko) of HFP Capital Markets LLC (HFP) was recently suspended and fined by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) over allegations that Mikolasko engaged in the sale of $3 million in Senior Secured Zero Coupon Notes sold to 58 customers of HFP for Metals Millings and Mining…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently sanctioned Source Capital Group (Source Capital) registered representatives Kevin Cline (Cline), Robert Burr (Burr), Vincent Christopher (Christopher), and Thomas Gilleland (Gilleland). FINRA’s findings concerned allegations that the brokers failed to adequately disclose material facts and made sales through misstatements in oil and gas…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently barred financial advisor William D. Bucci (Bucci) for allegedly accepting 19 personal loans totaling $635,000 from nine customers in violation of FINRA rules. Bucci also allegedly willfully failed to amend his Form U4 to disclose material facts relating to two judgments that were…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently sanctioned broker Michael A. Barina (Barina) over allegations that Barina failed to conduct reasonable due diligence into the offering a private placement security. In addition, FINRA alleged that the broker commingled certain funds. Barina first became registered with FINRA in 1999. Barina was…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has barred broker Richard Manchester (Manchester) over allegations that his participation in several private placements caused his employing firm to fail to establish an escrow account for several contingency offerings, broke escrow before the minimum contingency amounts were met, and made unauthorized use of…
Tenants-in-common real estate investments (“TIC”) are a more than $1-billion a year industry. However, with all innovative investment products, TIC investments receive their share of complaints from unhappy investors who bought them through a private placement. In FINRA arbitration, these complaints materialize as suitability claims and allegations of negligent misrepresentation. …
All brokers and broker-dealers have an obligation to ensure that their investment or investment strategy recommendation is suitable for the customer. All sales efforts must be reasonable and appropriate for the investor based upon the investor’s risk tolerance, investment objectives, age, financial circumstances, other investment holdings, experience, and other facts…
This article continues my in depth look into how unsuspecting investors are sold speculative private placements. While investors were told that Fisker Auto’s prospects were fantastic, nothing could have been further from the truth. In February 2012, the DOE loan had been frozen after $192 million had been given to…
In August, I wrote an article about how the brokerage firm Advanced Equities, Inc. (Advanced Equities) and First Allied Securities, Inc. (First Allied) sold nearly $1 billion in private placement offerings linked to clean technologies (clean-tech) to investors that have since become nearly worthless. Some of those investors have now…
FINRA has barred broker Daniel P. Deighan (Deighan) for seven months and fined him $27,500 over allegations that he recommended private placements to customers that were not suitable given the customers’ net worth, annual income, and the concentration of the private placements in their accounts. Private placements are securities that…