Securities Lawyers Blog
According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker John Lopinto (Lopinto) has been the subject of at least two customer complaints. The customer complaints against Lopinto allege securities law violations that claim churning and excessive trading, unsuitable investments, excessive commissions, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud among other claims. One complaint alleged that Lopinto caused $4,000,000 in damages. In another claim filed the customer alleged $1,000,000 in damages as a result of high risk private placements and account churning.
Lopinto entered the securities industry in 2002. From January 2007 until January 2009, Lopinto was associated with Pointe Capital, Inc. From January 2009 until February 2010, Lopinto was associated with National Securities Corporation. Thereafter, from February 2010, until August 2011, Lopinto was associated with J.P. Turner & Company, L.L.C. Finally, since August 2011 onward Lopinto has been associated with Legend Securities, Inc. out of the firm’s New York, New York office location.
Churning is investment trading activity in the client’s account that serves no reasonable purpose for the investor and is transacted solely to profit the broker. The elements to establish a churning claim, which is considered a species of securities fraud, 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.