According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Christopher Veale (Veale) has been the subject of at least 12 customer complaints, six judgment and lien of over $1,000,000 and five separate regulatory actions, two investigations by state regulators and one criminal matter involving a felony…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed a complaint against broker Vito Balsamo (Balsamo) concerning allegations that Balsamo engaged in private securities transactions – also known as “selling away” – in ownership interests in a limited liability company called V.W. Industries, LLC (VWI) without first receiving written approval from…
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…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed a complaint against broker Darnell Deans (Deans) concerning allegations that while associated with Garden State Securities, Inc. (GSS), Deans willfully failed to amend his Form U4 documents to disclose three unsatisfied federal tax liens totaling approximately $254,995. FINRA also alleged that from…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned broker Douglas Campbell Jr. (Campbell) concerning allegations that between May 2008 and September 2008, while registered with Wedbush Morgan Securities, Inc. (Wedbush), he engaged in unsuitable trading a customer’s account by recommending purchases of three speculative private placement investments that were not consistent…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently sanctioned broker Timothy O’Brien (O’Brien) alleging that O’Brien exercised discretion in two customers’ accounts without obtaining prior written authorization from the customers. O’Brien is associated with brokerage firm Felt & Company. The FINRA rules provide that registered representatives shall not exercise discretionary power…
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…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently sanctioned brokerage firm WFG Investments, Inc. (WFG) alleging a host of supervisory failures from March 2007, through January 2014. FINRA alleged that WFG failed to commit the necessary time, attention, and resources to critical regulatory obligations in supervising registered representatives including: (1) failure…
The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating a string of customer complaints against broker Shawn Burns (Burns) currently registered Salomon Whitney LLC (Salomon). According to The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) BrokerCheck system, the customer complaints primarily allege unauthorized trading, failure to execute, suitability, misrepresentation, fraud, churning, and…
Broker Kenneth Popek (Popek) has had four customer complaints filed against him over his career as a financial advisor. That many claims are rare. According to InvestmentNews, only about 12% of financial advisors have any type of disclosure event on their records. These disclosures do not necessarily have to include…