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Demitrios Hallas Investigated by SEC and FINRA for Anti-Fraud Violations

October 13, 2017 | Silver Law Group

The New York broker has been charged with numerous violations, including misappropriation

Though he’s currently not registered with a firm, Demitrios Hallas may never be allowed to work as a broker again. According to the SEC, from March 2014 to May 2016, Hallas violated a variety of anti-fraud provisions by recommending unsuitable investments, not performing his due diligence on these products, and misappropriating thousands of dollars.

The SEC complaint alleges that Hallas bought and sold daily leveraged Exchange-Traded Funds and Notes for several customers, even though they weren’t suitable investments. In addition, Hallas did not fully understand how these products worked or the risks involved. While accumulating $128,000 in fees and commissions for himself and his firm, his customers lost around $150,000 in total.

Christopher Robert Hickman is Sanctioned by FINRA after Alleged Elder Financial Fraud

October 12, 2017 | Silver Law Group

The Florida broker received a fine and suspension for making unsuitable investments

Christopher Robert Hickman will not be able to resume working as a broker until the middle of November. It will be then that his five-month suspension will come to an end. The penalty came from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) after the agency reported that Hickman “engaged in an unsuitable pattern of short-term trading of unit investment trusts (UITs).”

FINRA found that with six customers, Hickman recommended that they buy UITs and then sell them within a year, even though the UITs had maturity dates of 24 months or longer. In fact, the average time the customers held the UITs was just 136 days. Hickman also reportedly recommended that with the money from the sale of these UITs, his customers should buy another UIT with the same objectives. In total, the six customers lost about $116,000.

RBC Capital Broker Samuel Koltun has been Involved in Several Customer Disputes

October 9, 2017 | Silver Law Group

Koltun has been reportedly over-concentrating accounts on Puerto Rico bonds

Samuel Kluft Koltun has received a number of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) disclosures lately. From October 2015 to September of 2016, the broker received four customer complaints, and they all had one thing in common: Puerto Rico.

Currently registered with RBC Capital Markets, LLC out of West Palm Beach, Florida, the only other firm Koltun has worked for in his 30-year career is J.B. Hanauer & Co., also located in West Palm Beach.

Scott Silver Featured in Investment News Regarding Stockbrokers’ Fiduciary Duty

October 6, 2017 | Silver Law Group

What is the duty of a fiduciary? A recent case involving a broker-dealer firm in Puerto Rico is raising the issue

According to the Uniform Securities Act of Puerto Rico, broker-dealers and investment advisors in the commonwealth “must observe the highest standards of fiduciary duty toward their customers and clients.” But not all firms seem to adhere to this rule. Case in point is, potentially, Oriental Financial Services.

Based in San Juan, Oriental Financial recently sent a letter to one of its customers regarding an arbitration claim filed earlier this year with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Essentially a break-up letter from president Sean Miles, it informed the client that Oriental and “its agents, employees, parent and affiliates withdraw and disclaim any and all investment advice with regard to your accounts, including but not limited to the Puerto Rico securities.”

Former Cetera Advisors Broker Abraham Heimann Faces Several Complaints

October 4, 2017 | Silver Law Group

Since the beginning of 2017, he’s been involved in numerous customer disputes

For the time being, Abraham Heimann is not working as a broker. He started at Cetera Advisors LLC out of Alpharetta, Georgia, in June of 2013, but his employment there ended in early 2016. And even though he has not been in the securities industry for over a year, he is currently facing many serious allegations.

The first customer dispute came in January. Among other things, Heimann was charged with unsuitability, unauthorized trading, and breach of contract stemming from an account he managed from 2009 to 2013. The customer is seeking over $876,000 in damages.

Former Edward Jones Broker Steven Olejniczak Discharged, Suspended, and Fined

October 2, 2017 | Silver Law Group

The West Des Moines broker is under suspicion of elder financial fraud surrounding agreement with 76-year old customer.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Steven Anthony Olejniczak was discharged from his employment with Edward Jones in West Des Moines, IA in May 2016 for failing to report to the firm that he was named as a beneficiary of a non-related client’s Transfer on Death account.

More recently, in May 2017, Olejniczak’s BrokerCheck report shows that the broker not only allegedly failed to comply with his member firm’s policies and procedures requiring him to notify the firm of his designation as beneficiary (while he continued to service the account), but that he also failed to notify the firm that the customer had also named Olejniczak’s wife as the beneficiary of 90 percent of the assets in another firm account.

Cetera Advisor Networks, LLC

September 30, 2017 | Silver Law Group

Founded in 1983, Cetera Advisor Networks, LLC (CRD# 13572) is one of the largest independently managed brokerage firm in the U.S. Based in El Segundo, California, the company has a network of 10 broker-dealer firms consisting of nearly 10,000 advisors.

Cetera was originally created under the name of Financial Network Investment Corporation (FNIC). FNIC was sold to Aetna Financial Services in 1997; three years later, Aetna was acquired by ING Group. The firm – along with two other ING Group firms – was bought by Lightyear Capital, where it was renamed Cetera Financial Group.

In 2014, Lightyear sold Cetera for $1.15 billion to RCS Capital Corporation, which was partially owned by Nicholas Schorsch. Schorsch and his companies became infamous for the many BDCs and REITs they sponsored.

An Investigation into David Wesley Wells Results in a Permanent Bar from the Securities Industry

September 30, 2017 | Silver Law Group

An Investigation into David Wesley Wells Results in a Permanent Bar from the Securities Industry on elderfinancialfraudattorneys.com

The former Mid Atlantic broker was accused of violating his duty as a trustee

Earlier this year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) began investigating David Wesley Wells due to allegations that he misappropriated funds from at least one client. When Wells refused to give FINRA the information it needed, the agency permanently barred him. This means that he can no longer have anything to do with firms that sell securities.

Wells began his brokerage career in 1999 when he went to work for Mid Atlantic Capital Corporation in Hanover, Pennsylvania. In 2002, while still with Mid Atlantic, he also began working for Counsel Trust Group, and independent contractor office. It was a Counsel customer who charged him with misappropriation. According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck report, when Mid Atlantic discovered the allegations against Wells, he was terminated.

V. Cullen Kempson III Fined and Suspended by FINRA

September 30, 2017 | Silver Law Group

The New Jersey broker is alleged to have committed elder financial fraud

V. Cullen Kempson III (also known as Voigt C. Kempson) was fined and suspended earlier this year by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The agency discovered and reported that he had made trades in the account of a deceased customer.

Kempson wouldn’t admit or deny the findings, but he agreed to the 30-day suspension and $5,000 fine. Although he is now able to act as a broker again, he’ll need to find a new firm, as his most recent employer – Commonwealth Financial Network of Sparta, NJ – fired him when it learned about these reports.

Darnell Anthony Deans Receives a Permanent Bar from FINRA

September 22, 2017 | Silver Law Group

After numerous allegations, his 23-year career has come to an end

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has permanently barred Darnell Anthony Deans from the securities industry. The agency’s final ruling came after years of sanctions, suspensions, and fines related to a charge that he borrowed money from clients.

In 2015, FINRA discovered that Deans had three federal tax liens totaling about $250,000 and reported that he borrowed money from elderly clients in order to pay his debt. He allegedly did this without getting permission from his firm and, when questioned, he lied about his actions. If his clients did not know they were lending him money or he lied about what it would be used for, this could constitute elder financial fraud.