The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned brokerage firm The Oak Ridge Financial Services Group, lnc. (Oak Ridge) in connection with allegations that Oak Ridge failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system regarding the sale of leveraged, inverse and inverse leveraged exchange-traded funds (Non-Traditional ETFs) that were reasonably designed…
This post picks up on our first article on The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioning brokerage firm B. C. Ziegler and Company (B. C. Ziegler) and ordering the brokerage firm to pay $150,000 on allegations that the firm failed to implement a supervisory system reasonably designed to ensure that…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned broker Richard Lewis (Lewis) concerning allegations that Lewis exercised discretion in a customer’s account without obtaining prior written authorization from the customer. FINRA found that his conduct violated NASD Conduct Rule 2510(b) and FINRA Rule 2010. Lewis first became registered with FINRA firm…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned brokerage firm Blackbook Capital LLC (Blackbook) concerning allegations that: 1) between April 2010 and June 2011, Blackbook charged customers $60.50 on each purchase or sale transaction in addition to or in place of a designated commission; 2) between August 2010, and August 2011,…
The law office of Gana Weinstein LLP is investigating a string of securities arbitration cases involving broker Mark Lisser (Lisser) which generally allege securities violations including churning, excessive use of margin, churning, unsuitable investments, and breach of fiduciary duty. All the cases have been filed before The Financial Industry Regulatory…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has sanctioned Salomon Whitney, LLC (Salomon Whitney) concerning allegations from July 2008 through November 2009 the firm failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to monitor transactions in leveraged, inverse, and inverse-leveraged Exchange-Traded Funds (Non-Traditional ETFs). Non-Traditional ETFs contained risks that…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has sanctioned broker Douglas Cmelik(Cmelik) concerning allegations that Cmelik improperly marked order tickets for penny stock purchases as “unsolicited” when the purchases were solicited. Cmelik’s conduct allegedly violated NASD Conduct Rule 3110 and FINRA Rule 2010. Penny stocks are securities that carry significant investment…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has sanctioned Polar Investment Counsel, Inc. (Polar Investment) concerning allegations from 2011 and 2012, a firm advisor of Polar recommended various low-priced securities (penny stocks) received a total of 14 purchase orders for those securities. FINRA alleged that the representative marked eight of the…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently fined brokerage firm Commonwealth Financial Network (CFN) $250,000 on allegations that from December 7, 2009 to January 28, 2012, CFN’s supervisory system: (a) failed to subject about 12.6 million outgoing e-mails to daily e-mail surveillance protocol, constituting 90% of the e-mails that the…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently fined Colorado Financial Service Corporation (Colorado Financial) concerning allegations that the firm violated NASD Rule 3010, and FINRA Rule 2010, among other violations, by failing to establish, maintain, and enforce supervisory procedures reasonably designed to ensure compliance with the securities rules pertaining to…