Securities Arbitration Lawyers Blog

Allegations include sales of millions of unregistered stock shares John Hurry, a broker investment adviser who has been in the securities industry for 20 years, is pending disciplinary review by FINRA following allegations of his involvement with the illicit sale of more than 74 million unregistered shares through Arizona-based firm…

Alleged damages are estimated to be at least $499,000 According to FINRA, in April 2015, Richard Gomez, currently registered with Avenir Financial Group, was named as a respondent to a complaint regarding a fraudulent foreign company called Praetorian whose shares he sold to investors, allegedly causing nearly $500,000 in financial…

A former broker with Syndicated Capital in Great Neck, New York, Martin Knapp, was permanently barred by FINRA. This action occurred because Knapp failed to respond to a FINRA request for information in which he was suspended in April 2015. Because Knapp did not request termination of his suspension within…

Appealed suspension, but did not cooperate with FINRA investigation According to the FINRA website, Dalyne L. Shinneman has been barred from the securities industries following a career riddled with disclosures and disputes. A broker since 1989, Shinneman was most recently employed by Ridgeway & Conger, Inc., before facing suspension in…

King allegedly concealed loans from the firm, among other violations Fort Lauderdale-based broker Sylvester King, Jr. found himself in hot water with FINRA in April 2015, according to the BrokerCheck website. So much so that he resigned from his most recent employer, Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC the same day he…

Miami, Florida based broker Scott Reynolds was fined by FINRA for allegedly failing to report an outside brokerage account to his member firm, Spartan Securities, violating FINRA rules. Reynolds was censured fined $10,000 for this violation. Reynolds has been employed by Spartan Securities since 2005. Prior to working at Spartan,…

Customer disputes led to his discharge from last employer According to the FINRA BrokerCheck website, Scott Frederick Matthews, a financial adviser for 22 years, led a relatively quiet career before a string of several customer disputes in the past two years. Prior to June 2013, Matthews had been involved in…

Affiliates allegedly defrauded traditional bond investors Following allegations and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), two Citigroup affiliates have agreed to pay nearly $180 million to settle charges that they defrauded investors in two hedge funds. The firms are accused of claiming the hedge funds in question…

Failed to follow Securities Act requirements Lake Worth, Florida-based 1st Discount Brokerage, Inc along with Naples, Florida-based Alan Miller and Overland Park, Kansas-based Mark Miller are all players in a FINRA disciplinary action, according to the June 2015 FINRA Disciplinary Action Report. Both Alan Miller and Mark Miller consented to…

FINRA also orders cease and desist after failure to abide by Massachusetts state regulation on senior financial designations FINRA fined LPL Financial LLC a total of $250,000 on July 10 after allegations that the firm failed to establish or enforce supervisory procedures that complied with Massachusetts’ regulations. The regulations in…