Securities Lawyers Blog
According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Blaine Stahlman (Stahlman), currently associated with American Global Wealth Management, Inc. / First Asset Financial Inc., has at least one disclosable event. These events include one tax lien, alleging that Stahlman recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on October 16, 2024.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Stahlman consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he failed to reasonably supervise a registered representative’s recommendations of a speculative, unrated debt security to retail customers. The findings stated that the representative sold a total of $494,000 of the debt security to retail customers, where the sales were not suitable or in the best interests of the customers given the customers’ investment profiles and the fact that some of the customers were seniors. Stahlman was the representative’s direct supervisor and approved each sale of securities after reviewing the application documents. Furthermore, the representative had shared concerns with Stahlman that business model of the company whose debt was being sold was not viable and could fail, but Stahlman nevertheless continued to approve the sales to customers without exercising any additional supervisory scrutiny with respect to the company’s business. The findings also stated that Stahlman failed to retain and review that representative’s business-related email communications, despite knowing that the representative was using non-firm email for securities business purposes. The firm’s WSPs, which Stahlman was responsible for establishing and maintaining, prohibited its representatives from using email to correspond with customers, and instructed representatives to conduct all communications with customers by telephone. Nonetheless, Stahlman was aware that the representative routinely engaged in email communication from an outside, personal email account about the firm’s securities business, including communications with customers and with representatives of the debt security issuing company. Stahlman did not take reasonable steps to ensure that the representative’s business-related electronic communications were preserved as part of the firm’s books and records, or subjected to supervisory review.
