Securities Lawyers Blog
According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Robert Turpin (Turpin) was recently discharge from Source Capital Group, Inc. (Source Capital) relating to the firm’s allegations that Turpin engaged in unapproved and undisclosed outside business activities – also referred to in the industry as “selling away.”
It is unclear the nature of the outside business activities from publicly available information at this time. However, Turpin’s Brokercheck disclosures reveal numerous outside business activities including:
- Tartesso West Multi Family LLC
- Tartesso West Commercial Mixed Us, LLC
- Tartesso West High Density Residential II
- Tampa Bay Investors, LLC
- Tampa Bay Investors II, LLC
- Tampa Bay Investors III, LLC
- Alliance Equity Investors
- Alliance Equity Investors Colorado LLC
- New Alliance Opportunity Investors LLC
According to BrokerCheck, all of the Taetesso funds are part of planed community in Arizona. The Tampa Bay Investors funds were created to purchase units in Romark Labs. Alliance Equity Investors was formed to invest in real estate through Jerry Coleman and Josh Simonton.
Turpin entered the securities industry in 1982. From May 2004 through December 2009, Turpin was associated with Unita Investments, Inc. Thereafter, from February 2010 until September 2015, Turpin was associated with Source Capital.
In the industry the term selling away refers to when a financial advisor solicits investments in companies, promissory notes, or other securities that are not pre-approved by the broker’s affiliated firm. However, even though when these incidents occur the brokerage firm claims ignorance of their advisor’s activities the firm is obligated under the FINRA rules to properly monitor and supervise its employees in order to detect and prevent brokers from offering investments in this fashion. In order to properly supervise their brokers each firm is required to have procedures in order to monitor the activities of each advisor’s activities and interaction with the public. Selling away misconduct often occurs where brokerage firms either fail to put in place a reasonable supervisory system or fail to actually implement that system. Supervisory failures allow brokers to engage in unsupervised misconduct that can include all manner improper conduct including selling away.
In cases of selling away the investor is unaware that the advisor’s investments are improper. In many of these cases the investor will not learn that the broker’s activities were wrongful until after the investment scheme is publicized, the broker is fired or charged by law enforcement, or stops returning client calls altogether.
Investors who have suffered losses may be able recover their losses through securities arbitration. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP are experienced in representing investors in cases of selling away and brokerage firms failure to supervise their representatives. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.