Securities Arbitration Lawyers BlogSilver Law Group is Investigating Joshua Ellis of LPL Financial LLC
Joshua Ellis (CRD #5500165) was suspended on March 26, 2018 from associating with any FINRA member firm in all capacities. If Ellis fails to request termination of the suspension within three months of the date of the Notice of Suspension, he will automatically be barred on May 31, 2018 from association with any FINRA member in all capacities pursuant to FINRA Rule 9552(h).
Joshua Ellis was with LPL Financial in its Kennesaw, Georgia office until October 2017 when he was discharged for failing to timely respond to inquiries from the firm’s compliance department.
avid Barber (CRD #1165082) was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities. Without admitting or denying the findings, Barber consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he failed to produce information and documents requested by FINRA during the course of an ongoing examination to determine whether he engaged in unauthorized trading in the accounts of customers of his member firm, exercised discretion in customer accounts without written authorization, or otherwise acted in violation of FINRA rules.
Thomas Meier (CRD #1146044) was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities. Without admitting or denying the findings, Meier consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he effected approximately 1,290 unauthorized transactions, including both purchases and sales of equity securities, in eight accounts belonging to six customers. The findings stated that none of the eight accounts were discretionary accounts and Meier did not have discussions with the customers about the trades prior to the transactions and did not obtain the customers’ authorization prior to executing any of the transactions. Meier received approximately $265,000 in commissions for those transactions. Two of the customers realized losses of approximately $78,000. In addition, there were unrealized losses in the accounts. To-date, Meier’s member firm, Morgan Stanley, has paid a total of approximately $1,087,610 to five of the customers in connection with complaints about Meier. The findings also stated that Meier exercised discretion in five accounts belonging to four separate customers. The findings also included that Meier made inaccurate statements on four annual compliance questionnaires that he did not have any accounts in which business was transacted on a discretionary basis.
On December 22, 2017, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) awarded our clients $164,000 due to Milakovich’s misconduct, including unsuitable recommendations, unauthorized trading, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and churning.