Securities Lawyers Blog
According to the BrokerCheck records kept by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Robert Marks (Marks) has been the subject of at least 2 customer complaints. Customers have filed complaints against Marks alleging securities law violations that focus primarily on churning and excessive trading. In addition to the churning claims, customers have complained of unsuitable investments, negligence, fraud, and unauthorized trading among other claims. One customer complaint focuses on speculative trading in penny stocks.
Marks entered the securities industry in 2000. From August 2008, until October 2009, Marks was associated with GunnAllen Financial, Inc. Thereafter, Marks became associated with Synergy Investment Group, LLC from October 2009, until October 2011. Finally, since September 2011, Marks has been associated with Cape Securities Inc. where he remains registered out of the Coram, 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.