FINRA Suspends Pratul Agnihotri For Undisclosed Outside Business Activity

Pratul Agnihotri (CRD#: 4031797, aka “Victor Agnihotri”) is a previously registered broker whose last known employer was SW Financial (CRD#:145012) of Melville, NY. His previous employers included Spartan Capital Securities, LLC (CRD#:146251) of New York, NY, Aegis Capital Corp. (CRD#:15007) of Melville, NY, and Gunnallen Financial, Inc (CRD#:17609) of New York, NY.

Four of Agnihotri’s previous employers have been expelled by FINRA.  He has been in the industry since 1999.

While affiliated with Aegis, and then Spartan, Agnihotri engaged in an outside business activity (OBA) by forming a company called Exergizer, a company selling a piece of exercise equipment. He also became the company’s CEO. Agnihotri failed to notify both of his employers about this non-firm activity as required by FINRA’s Rule 3270.

Aegis’ policy requires the firm to be notified of all non-firm activity in writing. During his tenure from February 2015 through October 2017, Agnihotri failed to notify Aegis of his involvement with Exergizer. He also answered “no” to the question of OBAs on his compliance questionnaires in 2015 and 2015.

Aegis Financial Securities Arbitration Claims

Moving from Aegis to Spartan in October 2017, Agnihotri again failed to notify the firm of his outside business activity with Exergizer. Spartan had a similar policy requiring its employees to inform the firm in writing that he was engaged in an OBA. The firm allowed new employees to continue any OBA as long as the firm was notified in writing. Agnihotri never provided any notification to Spartan of his OBA with Exergizer.

Additionally, while at Spartan, Agnihotri procured an $8,000 loan from one of his clients to be used specifically for expenses for Exergizer. This was the understanding between Agnihotri and the client. No specifics details were made and there was no documentation for the loan. Agnihotri deposited the check into an Exergizer bank account, and used approximately $919 of it for expenses related to Exergizer. The client disagreed with the use of the money. Later, Agnihotri paid back the entire $8,000 loan to the client.

Spartan issued a Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration indicating that the firm ended Agnihotri’s employment for failing to notify the firm of his OBA. Agnihotri became registered as a GS at SW Financial in July of 2019.

FINRA issued sanctions against Agnihotri for the misconduct, including a suspension for 12 months beginning 11/2/2020, and a fine of $7,500.

Previously, a customer dispute filed on 10/8/2019 alleged that from December 2013 through the time of filing, Agnihotri engaged in “unauthorized trading, failure to follow instructions, negligence, selling away, breach of fiduciary duty.” The client requests damages in the amount of $650,000. This claim is still pending.

Have You Invested With Pratul Agnihotri?

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