Securities Lawyers Blog
The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP represents investors in investment disputes with their financial advisors or brokerage firms, such as Dinosaur Financial Group, L.L.C. Many investors do not recognize financial advisor misconduct when it happens, but there are steps that can be taken to recover investment losses. There are many different types of broker misconduct, including breach of fiduciary duty, failure to supervise, misrepresentation, and churning. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP can analyze your investments to determine if there was actionable misconduct by the broker or brokerage firm.
Dinosaur Financial Group is an institutional brokerage firm that provides global execution, financing, and advisory services across equities, fixed income, commodities, and derivatives for institutions, family offices, asset managers, hedge funds, banks, dealers, and corporations. Founded in 2001 and based in New York, the firm is part of Dinosaur Group Holdings, which also includes the London-based Dinosaur Merchant Bank and the investment adviser DCM Advisors, and it serves clients across six continents.
Dinosaur Financial Group, L.L.C – By the Numbers:
- CRD #: 104446
- Regulatory Events: 6
- Arbitration Events: 1
- Broker Employees: 45
Dinosaur Financial Group, L.L.C – In the News:
FINRA v. Dinosaur Financial Group, L.L.C (Case #2023077098201) – From April 2022 to November 2023, Dinosaur Financial guaranteed its parent company’s 10-year commercial real estate lease totaling $4.3 million. The firm failed to provide written notice to FINRA before entering into this guarantee. The firm also failed to include this guarantee in the firm’s net capital computations, causing it to operate a securities business while below its minimum net capital requirement for 19 of those 20 months. During the same period, the firm maintained inaccurate books and records, including inaccurate net capital computations, filed 20 inaccurate Financial and Operational Combined Uniform Single (FOCUS) reports, and failed to timely notify FINRA and the SEC of the firm’s net capital deficiencies. As a result, the firm violated Securities Exchange Act of 1934 §§ 15(c)(3) and 17(a), Exchange Act Rules 15c3-1, 17a-3, 17a-5, and 17a-11, and FINRA Rules 4110(b)(1), 4150(a), 4511, and 2010. For these violations, the firm is censured and fined $85,000.
FINRA v. Dinosaur Financial Group, L.L.C (Case #2017054867601) – Between October 2015 and September 2017 (the “Relevant Period”), Dinosaur failed to report, timely report and/or correctly report 892 TRACE-eligible securities transactions. During the Relevant Period, the Firm also failed to timely report 364 municipal securities transactions to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s (“MSRB”) Real-Time Reporting System (“RTRS”). The Firm failed to record accurate transaction times with respect to 143 TRACE transactions on its order memoranda. Additionally, the Firm failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a reasonably designed supervisory system, including enforcing its written supervisory procedures (“WSPs”), to ensure accurate reporting of TRACE-eligible and municipal securities transactions that complied with trade reporting rules. Based on the foregoing, Dinosaur violated FINRA Rule 6730(a), (b) and (c), Rule 3110, Rule 2010, Rule 4511, Rule 17a-3 of the Exchange Act, and MSRB Rules G-14 and G-27. In response to FINRA requests for information made pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210, Dinosaur provided inaccurate Quality of Market Report Card (“QMRC”) reports that purported to evidence the Firm’s supervisory review of its TRACE transaction reporting. The Firm produced eight monthly QMRC reports to FINRA that a senior Firm employee initialed and dated to reflect the time of his purported trading review. In fact, the Firm employee backdated the reports because the purported trade review did not occur in a timely fashion, as required by the Firm’s WSPs. The Firm also altered information on six monthly MSRB reports the Firm produced to FINRA, either backdating dates that the reports were purportedly reviewed, or whiting out the dates reflecting when the reports were generated in order to hide the fact that the trade reviews were not done on a timely basis, as required by the Firm’s WSPs. Based on the foregoing, Dinosaur violated FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010 and MSRB Rule G-17.
Gana Weinstein LLP has successfully handled hundreds of customer investment disputes with their brokerage firms. Our attorneys can help you detect and uncover suspicious activity in your accounts. Our consultations are free and we welcome all inquiries.