According to BrokerCheck records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Joao Pinto (Pinto), currently associated with Spartan Capital Securities, LLC, has been subject to at least 2 disclosable events. These events include one customer complaint, one regulatory event. Several of those complaints against Pinto concern allegations of high frequency trading activity also referred to as churning or excessive trading among other securities laws violations.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $931,402.00 on May 14, 2025.
Allegation of Unsuitability investments, excessive trading, misrepresentation, failure to supervise
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on November 21, 2023.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Pinto consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he willfully violated the Best Interest Obligation under Rule 15l-1 of the Exchange Act by recommending a series of trades in a 68-year-old retired customer’s account that were excessive, unsuitable, and not in the customer’s best interest. The findings stated that Pinto recommended high frequency trading in the customer’s account, and the customer routinely followed his recommendations. As a result, Pinto exercised de factor control over the customer’s account. Pinto’s trading in the customer’s account generated total trading costs of $92,237, including $83,484 in commissions, and caused $141,051 in realized losses.
Should a broker participate in excessive trading, or churning, they may repeatedly buy and sell securities, occasionally even the same stock, within a short span of time. Every month or a few months, the account could be completely replaced with new securities. The only purpose of this investment trading activity in any client’s account is to generate commissions that benefit the broker, not the investor. Churning is regarded as a specific category of securities fraud. The claim is based on excessive securities trading, the broker’s control over the account, and a fraudulent scheme to extract unlawful commissions from the investor. A similar claim, excessive trading, under FINRA’s suitability rule involves just the first two elements. Certain commonly used measures and ratios used to determine churning help evaluate a churning claim. These ratios look at how frequently the account is turned over plus whether or not the expenses incurred in the account made it unreasonable that the investor could reasonably profit from the activity.
According to newsources, a study revealed that 7.3% of financial advisors had a customer complaint on their record when records from 2005 to 2015 were examined. Brokers must publicly disclose reportable events on their BrokerCheck reports that include customer complaints, IRS tax liens, judgments, investigations, terminations, and criminal cases. In addition, research has shown a disturbing pattern with troublesome brokers where brokers with high numbers of customer complaints are not kicked out of the industry but instead these brokers are sifted to lower quality brokerage firms with loose hiring practices and higher rates of customer complaints. These lower quality firms may average brokers with five times as many complaints as the industry average.
Pinto entered the securities industry in 2014. Pinto has been registered as a Broker with Spartan Capital Securities, LLC since 2019.
Investors who have suffered losses are encouraged to contact us at (800) 810-4262 for consultation. At Gana Weinstein LLP, our attorneys are experienced representing investors who have suffered securities losses due to the mishandling of their accounts. Claims may be brought in securities arbitration before FINRA. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.