Securities Arbitration Lawyers Blog

Silver Law Group is investigating former Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (CRD# 705)  broker John Nelson Crook (CRD# 2715424) after a customer filed a FINRA arbitration alleging $4.8 million in damages.

According to Crook’s FINRA BrokerCheck report, Crook’s customer filed a FINRA arbitration against Crook alleging churning/excessive trading and commissions; unauthorized trading; unsuitability; breach of fiduciary duty; fraud/intentional misrepresentation and omission; negligence/gross negligence; breach of contract; and violations of Georgia Blue Sky Law.  The FINRA arbitration alleges damages in the amount of $4.8 million.

Prior to the filing of the FINRA arbitration, Crook was discharged by Raymond James due to “loss of confidence” in Crook.  According to Crook’s BrokerCheck report, Crook was terminated because he did not respond candidly to a supervisory review of Crook’s trading activity in a customer’s account and did not provide plausible explanations for said trading activity.

Silver Law Group is investigating Wesley Chapel, Florida-based Center Street Securities, Inc. (CRD# 26898) broker Satya Brata Shaw (CRD# 1229175) after the Florida Office of Financial Regulation opened an investigation into the broker.  Our firm is interested in speaking with you if you have worked with Shaw.

In November 2016, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation initiated an investigation into Shaw for violations of state, federal and industry rules and regulations, according to Shaw’s FINRA BrokerCheck report.

The investigation follows a string of settlements between other state regulatory bodies between 2009 and 2016.  In total, Shaw has been fined or sanctioned by six different states in a total of seven regulatory actions, according to his BrokerCheck report.

Silver Law Group is investigating Burnham Securities, Inc. (CRD# 22549) and related entities for allegations of its role as placement agent for fraudulent tribal bonds.

In May 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint against a host of individuals, including notorious securities fraudsters Jason W. Galanis and his father John P. Galanis for defrauding investors in sham Native American tribal bonds.

The Galanises main objective was to steal money for their own extravagant expenses and criminal defense costs.

On December 5, 2016, FINRA reported that it fined Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (CRD# 816) $16.5 million for anti-money laundering (“AML”), supervision and other violations.

According to the Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (“AWC”) entered into between Credit Suisse and FINRA, Credit Suisse neither admitted or denied the allegations but consented to the findings.

FINRA found that Credit Suisses’s suspicious activity monitoring program was deficient in that it relied on its registered representatives to identify and report potentially suspicious trading, including microcap transactions.  This self-regulation did not always work in practice, and high-risk activity was not always reported and investigated.