Securities Lawyers Blog
According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker John Emanuele (Emanuele), currently associated with Lebenthal Financial Services, Inc., has at least 2 disclosable events. These events include 2 tax liens, alleging that Emanuele recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on November 20, 2024.
On August 1, 2024, without admitting or denying the findings, Emanuele entered into an Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (“AWC”) with FINRA wherein Emanuele consented to the entry of findings that in July 2023, Emanuele certified to the State of New York that he had personally completed 15 hours of insurance continuing education (CE) credits required to renew his license in July 2023 to sell various insurance products, including securities such as variable annuities. Emanuele knew that he had not completed the required CE that were completed by another person on his behalf in June 2023. Emanuele agreed to a one-month suspension from associating with any FINRA member in all capacities and to the payment of a fine in the amount of $5,000.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on August 08, 2024.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Emanuele consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he certified to the State of New York that he had personally completed 15 hours of continuing education required to renew his state insurance license when, in fact, another person had completed that continuing education on his behalf.
Under the securities laws brokers are obligated to act in their clients’ best interests and provide only suitable recommendations for investments to the client. In addition, the SEC has promulgated ‘Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI)‘ which according to the SEC enhanced the broker-dealer standard of conduct beyond existing suitability obligations and requires broker-dealers to act in the best interest of a retail customer when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities. Regulation Best Interest and the fiduciary standard for investment advisers are drawn from key fiduciary principles that include an obligation to act in the retail investor’s best interest and not to place their own interests ahead of the investor’s interest.
Brokers have an obligation to first obtain and evaluate sufficient information about a retail investor to form a reasonable basis to believe the account recommendations are in the retail investor’s best interest. Recommendations cannot be based on materially inaccurate or incomplete information. Material information always includes information concerning the investor as well as the cost of the recommendation. Types of costs that must be considered including account fees, commissions and transaction costs, tax considerations, as well as indirect costs.
In addition to obligation to understand the customer the broker must also investigate the product being sold. FINRA firms have an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation of the issuer and the securities they recommend in offerings. A brokerage firm has a special relationship with a customer from the fact that in recommending the security, the broker represents to the customer that a reasonable investigation has been made. So, a brokerage firm should not depend solely on the issuer for data about a company instead of performing its own thorough review.
Another protective measure for investors is to mandate broker discloses. Brokers are required to reveal important events, such as customer complaints, IRS tax liens, judgments, investigations, terminations, and even criminal matters, publicly on their BrokerCheck reports. FINRA has recognized that recent studies indicate future regulatory and customer complaint issues can be predicted for brokers who have experienced them before. FINRA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) published a study showing the predictability of disciplinary and disclosure events based on past similar events. The OCE study showed that past disclosure events, including regulatory actions, customer arbitrations and litigations of brokers, have significant power to predict future investor harm. The data shows that where a member firm on-boards brokers with a significant history of misconduct there is a high likelihood that the broker will continue to engage in similar behavior.
Emanuele entered the securities industry in 1982. Emanuele has been registered as a Broker with Lebenthal Financial Services, Inc. since 2024.
Investors who have suffered losses are encouraged to contact us at (800) 810-4262 for consultation. At Gana Weinstein LLP, our attorneys are experienced representing investors who have suffered securities losses due to the mishandling of their accounts. Claims may be brought in securities arbitration before FINRA. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.
