Sigma Financial Corporation Tag Archives

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker Glenn Donnell in Firm Sigma Financial Corporation

April 6, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Glenn Donnell (Donnell), previously associated with Sigma Financial Corporation, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one regulatory event, alleging that Donnell recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on August 15, 2024.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Donnell consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he exercised discretion without prior written authorization by executing transactions in customer accounts. The findings stated that although the customers had given Donnell express or implied authority to exercise discretion in their accounts, none of the customers provided written authorization for him to exercise discretion. The findings also stated that Donnell caused two of his member firms to maintain inaccurate books and records by mismarking solicited trades as unsolicited. All of the trades were in marijuana securities, which trade over the counter. At one of the firms, Donnell untruthfully answered the firm’s direct inquiries about the solicited vs. unsolicited nature of the trades. While associated to another firm, Donnell marked the trades as unsolicited in order to avoid the firm’s trade system block on solicited over-the-counter trades.

Broker Adam Brunin in Sigma Financial Corporation Firm Has Customer Complaint

March 12, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Adam Brunin (Brunin), previously associated with Sigma Financial Corporation, has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Brunin recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $210,000.00 on October 14, 2024.

The client feels that their accounts had a concentration in equities, which posed significant risk to their portfolio, particularly given their conservative investment objectives. They feel that market timing strategies were employed which were inappropriate for their goals. They are seeking resolution in the amount of $210,000 for this issue.

There are Recent Customer Complaints with Broker Walter Shoczolek in Firm Sigma Financial Corporation

February 8, 2025 | by Staff Attorney

The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that Broker Walter Shoczolek (Shoczolek) has been accused by investors of engaging in fraudulent misappropriation of their funds. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), it appears that Shoczolek was employed by Sigma Financial Corporation at the time of the activity. If you have been a victim of Shoczolek’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $500,000.00 on September 13, 2023.

Customer alleged her investment was unsuitable and the representative liquidated it without her authorization.

Broker Louis Frederick Scherschel Subject To Customer Complaint

May 23, 2017 | by Staff Attorney

The securities and investment lawyers of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating a customer complaint and an employment separation after allegations filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) again broker Louis Frederick Scherschel (Scherschel). According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck records for Scherschel, there is a disclosure on his record for a customer complaint that resulted in arbitration. In October 2015, a customer complaint alleged that Scherschel made unsuitable sales of leveraged EFTs and failed to follower the customer’s instructions to implement sell stops. The original requested damages amount was $500,000 and the case was settled in September 2016 for $295,000.

In September 2015, Scherschel was discharged from his position at Sigma Financial Corporation for failing to comply with the company’s correspondence policy for leveraged ETFs.

Scherschel entered the securities industry in 2009. He was previously registered with:

Broker Investigation: TIC Complaints Against Sigma Financial Broker Tomas Velken

December 28, 2015 | by Staff Attorney

The investment attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP are interested in speaking with investors of broker Tomas Velken (Velken). According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Velken has been the subject of at least 14 customer complaints. The customer complaints against Velken allege securities law violations that including unsuitable investments, misrepresentations, and breach of fiduciary duty among other claims. Many of the complaints appear to be in connection with in connection with the sales of tenants-in-common (TICs).

The most recent complaint was filed in September 2015, and alleged $115,000 in losses due to a recommendation to invest in a real estate security transaction purchased in 2007. Another investor in April 2015, claimed $1,777,484 in damages due to a real estate security transactions purchased from 2005 through 2007. In March 2015, another investor alleged that in 2010 the broker made misrepresentations concerning an investment’s performance and claimed damages of $592,600.

As a background, TICs largely been sold unfairly as tax advantaged products that allow customers to defer capital gains taxes on appreciated real estate. TICs are private placements that have no secondary trading market and are therefore illiquid investments. In a typical TIC, the investor receives a fractional interest in the property along with other stakeholders and the profits are generated mostly through the efforts of the sponsor and the management company that manages and leases the property. The sponsor typically structures the TIC investment with up-front fees and expenses charged to the TIC and negotiates the sale price and loan for the acquired property. Because these fees are often higher than 15%, there is often no way for the investment to be profitable for the investor.

Customers File Complaints Against Eric Wegner Over Tenants-in-Common (TIC) Real Estate Investments

October 26, 2015 | by Staff Attorney

According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Eric Wegner (Wegner) has been the subject of at least 5 customer complaints and two financial disclosures. Customers have filed complaints against Wegner alleging a number of securities law violations including that the broker made unsuitable investments, misrepresentations, breach of fiduciary duty, and false statements mostly in connection with recommendations to invest in private placements such as tenants-in-common (TICs) interests. In addition, one complaint involves a dispute over a variable annuity recommendation.

Wegner entered the securities industry in 2000. From December 2002, until December 2008, Wegner was a registered representative with Sammons Securities Company, LLC. Thereafter, from January 2009, until February 2011, Wegner was associated with QA3 Financial Corp. From February 2011, until July 2013, Wegner was associated with Sigma Financial Corporation. Finally, Wegner is currently a registered representative with Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. out of the firm’s Delafield, Wisconsin office location.

TIC investments have led to devastating investor losses and are in almost all cases unsuitable products. The near certainty of failure of investing in TICs as a whole has led to the product virtually disappearing as an offered investment from most reputable brokerage firms. According to InvestmentNews “At the height of the TIC market in 2006, 71 sponsors raised $3.65 billion in equity from TICs and DSTs…TICs now are all but extinct because of the fallout from the credit crisis.” In fact, TICs recommendations have been a major contributor to bankrupting brokerage firms. For example, 43 of the 92 broker-dealers that sold TICs sponsored by DBSI Inc., a company whose executives were later charged with running a Ponzi scheme, a staggering 47% of firms that sold DBSI are no longer in business.

Broker Spotlight – Mark Johanson’s Sale of Tenants-in-Common (TIC)

November 13, 2014 | by Staff Attorney

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck system, there have been four customer complaints filed against former Sigma Financial Corporation (Sigma) and current Charles Schwab broker, Mark Johanson (Johanson) stemming from unsuitable Tenants-in-Common (TIC) investments.

Sales of TICs exploded during the early 2000s from approximately $150 million in 2001 to approximately $2 billion by 2004. TICs are private placements that have no secondary trading market and are therefore illiquid investments. These products were promoted as appropriate section 1031 exchanges in which an investor obtains an undivided fractional interest in real property. In a typical TIC, the profits are generated mostly through the efforts of the sponsor and the management company that manages and leases the property. The sponsor typically structures the TIC investment with up-front fees and expenses charged to the TIC and negotiates the sale price and loan for the acquired property.

TIC investments entail significant risks. A TIC investor runs the risk of holding the property for a significant amount of time and that subsequent sales of the property may occur at a discount to the value of the real property interest. FINRA has also warned that the fees and expenses associated with TICs, including sponsor costs, can outweigh the any potential tax benefits associated with a Section 1031 Exchange. That is, the TIC product itself may be a defective product because its costs outweigh any potential investment value for a customer. FINRA also instructed members that they have an obligation to comply with all applicable conduct rules when selling TICs by ensuring that promotional materials used are fair, accurate, and balanced.