Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently announced that it has expelled APS Financial Corporation, located in Austin, Texas, barred the firm’s former President, George Conwill, and barred Peter Aman, a former broker at the firm, in a scheme which overcharged an elderly investor by $1.2 million. FINRA found that Aman charged mark-ups ranging from 4.15 [...]
According to the Business Record, DeWaay Financial Network LLC of Clive and three other Iowa investment brokers are among 49 firms that have been sued in connection with the bankruptcy of a company accused of running a $485 million Ponzi scheme involving allegedly bogus oil and gas investments. Provident Royalties LLC, based in Dallas, filed [...]
In 2009, FINRA announced that it had fined NEXT Financial Group, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, $1 million for supervisory violations that primarily involved the failure to supervise its approximately 130 Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction (OSJ) branch managers, who typically supervise transactions and sales activity for individual brokers or branches within a particular region. OSJ [...]
In February 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that it had fined Penson Financial Services, a Dallas-based securities clearing firm, $450,000 for failing to establish and implement an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program to detect and trigger reporting of suspicious transactions, as required by the Bank Secrecy Act and FINRA rules and other [...]
The White Law Group is investigating possible securities fraud claims involving the Oppenheimer Champion Income Fund (OCHBX, OPCHX and OCHCX) and the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund (OPIGX). Although marketed to investors as conservative investments, the Champion Fund and Core Bond Fund were extremely risky ventures, investing in illiquid derivatives and high risk credit default swaps. [...]
The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm. The White Law Group has its offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida because of the obvious benefits of being located so close to the FINRA Dispute Resolutions offices in those cities (FINRA’s Southeast headquarters [...]
FINRA recently announced that Trent Tremayne Hughes, formerly of Brewer Financial Services in Plano, Texas, has been fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for three months. The sanctions were based on findings that Hughes falsified cash distribution forms totaling $232,752 to accommodate customers. The findings further stated that [...]
FINRA recently announced that Gary Robert Stremel, formerly of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. in Houston, Texas, has been barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Stremel consented to the entry of findings that he exercised discretion in a customer’s account without the customer’s written authorization or [...]
FINRA recently announced that Sheila Dawnell Dowling, formerly of Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC in Keller, Texas, has been barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Dowling consented to the findings that she exercised discretion in a customer’s account, and effected transactions and electronic fund transfers primarily [...]
FINRA recently announced that Penson Financial Services, Inc. has been fined $38,000 and ordered to pay $22,663, plus interest, in restitution to customer, and required to revise its written supervisory procedures with respect to TRACE reporting requirements. Without admitting or denying the findings, Penson Financial Services consented to the findings that it sold or bought [...]