Former Pro Athletes Win FINRA Arbitration Award After Former Fort Lauderdale, Florida-Based Morgan Stanley Broker Lured Them Into Bad Investments

Two former pro athletes, one from the NBA and the other the NFL, won an $819,000 FINRA arbitration award against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (“Morgan Stanley”) after Morgan Stanley allegedly failed to supervise a former broker.

Keyon Dooling, a first-round pick, played in the NBA for 12 seasons. John St. Clair, a former offensive tackle, played in the NFL for 11 seasons.  Their broker was Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Aaron Parthemer (CRD# 2546369), and the misconduct occurred while Parthemer was employed by Morgan Stanley.

According to an InvestmentNews report, Parthemer convinced Dooling and St. Clair to invest in Global Village Concerns, a sportswear company, while only convincing Mr. Dooling to invest in Club Play, a Miami Beach nightclub.  According to the report, the investments became worthless.

According to Parthemer’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) BrokerCheck report, Parthemer was permanently barred from the securities industry in April 2015 for performing outside business activities that his firm was not aware of or had given approval for, among other things.  Further, when the firm confronted Parthemer regarding the outside business activities, he misrepresented that he was not involved with any outside business activities.

According to the Investment News report, one of the businesses included allegedly running a hip-hop dance club in South Beach.

Parthemer was employed by Morgan Stanley from mid-2009 to late-2011.  Following his stint with Morgan Stanley, he was employed by Wells Fargo from late-2011 to mid-2015 when he was barred, according to his BrokerCheck report.  Our attorneys have represented pro athletes, performers and others who have earned substantial amounts of money early in their careers and fallen victim to securities or investment fraud.

While brokers have to recommend suitable investments, the customer protection onus is not entirely on the brokers.  Supervising firms owe a duty to their customers to properly supervise their brokers and set up protocols to catch issues before they turn into disasters like they did here.

If you have invested with Aaron Parthemer and have lost money doing so, you may be able to recover some or all of your losses.  Our lawyers are experienced in recovering investor losses due to misconduct such as that alleged in Parthemer’s BrokerCheck report.

Silver Law Group represents the interests of investors who have been the victims of investment fraud.  If you have questions about your legal rights, please contact Scott Silver of the Silver Law Group for a free consultation at ssilver@silverlaw.com or toll free at (800) 975-4345.