Securities Lawyers Blog
The securities lawyers of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating customer complaints against broker Cory Bataan (Bataan). There are at least four customer complaints against Bataan and one employment termination for cause. The customer complaints against Bataan allege a number of securities law violations including that the broker engaged in churning, unauthorized trading, unsuitable trades, breach of fiduciary duty, and misrepresentations among other claims. In addition, in August 2012, Empire Asset Management terminated Bataan alleging that their were violations of the firms policies and procedures.
When brokers engage in excessive trading, sometimes referred to as churning, the broker will typical trade in and out of securities, sometimes even the same stock, many times over a short period of time. Often times the account will completely “turnover” every month with different securities. This type of investment trading activity in the client’s account serves no reasonable purpose for the investor and is engaged in only to profit the broker through the generation of commissions created by the trades. Churning is considered a species of securities fraud. The elements of the claim are excessive transactions of securities, broker control over the account, and intent to defraud the investor by obtaining unlawful commissions. A similar claim, excessive trading, under FINRA’s suitability rule involves just the first two elements. Certain commonly used measures and ratios used to determine churning help evaluate a churning claim. These ratios look at how frequently the account is turned over plus whether or not the expenses incurred in the account made it unreasonable that the investor could reasonably profit from the activity.
Bataan is currently registered with, Aegis Capital Corp. (Aegis), a brokerage firm that has been identified as employing troublesome brokers. According to a recent study conducted by the Securities Litigation and Consulting Group entitled “How Widespread and Predictable is Stock Broker Misconduct?” the incidents of investor harm at Aegis is extraordinarily high. The study ranked Aegis as the worst brokerage firm finding that brokers at the firm had over a 35% misconduct rate. The study stated that investors should stay away from Aegis “Given their coworkers’ disclosure record as of 2014, 83.7% of the brokers at these six firms would be in the highest risk quintile as defined in the FINRA study and should be avoided by investors. The BrokerCheck reports for most of the brokers at these six firms should prominently display a skull and crossbones warning.”
The number of customer complaints against Bataan is high relative to his peers. According to InvestmentNews, only about 12% of financial advisors have any type of disclosure event on their records. Brokers must publicly disclose certain types of reportable events on their CRD including but not limited to customer complaints. In addition to disclosing client disputes brokers must divulge IRS tax liens, judgments, and criminal matters.
Bataan entered the securities industry in January 1996. From April 2008 until August 2012 Bataan was registered with Empire Asset Management Company. Since August 2012, Bataan has been registered with Aegis out of the firm’s Melville, New York office location.
The investment attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP represent investors who have suffered securities losses due to the mishandling of their accounts. The majority of these claims may be brought in securities arbitration before FINRA. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.