Articles Tagged with broker theft attorney

shutterstock_184920014-300x199The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor James Couture (Couture) has converted customer funds among other allegations.  According to BrokerCheck records, Schmidt is formerly registered with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member firm LPL Financial LLC (LPL Financial) out of the firm’s Worcester, Massachusetts office location.  In addition, Couture disclosed two customer complaints, one employment terminations for cause, and two regulatory actions.  If you have been a victim of Couture’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

In June 2020 LPL Financial terminated Couture alleging that he had altered identifying information, account balances and distributions in customer account statement, maintained comingled customer funds, use of an unapproved email address.  Thereafter, FINRA investigated these claims but Couture refused to comply with the agency’s requests.

In June 2021 the SEC alleged that Couture violated his fiduciary duty to his clients by engaging in a deceptive scheme to misappropriate approximately $2.9 million from them. According to the SEC, Couture fraudulently prompted his clients to sell portions of their securities holdings in order to fund large money transfers to an entity that he owned and controlled. The SEC alleges that once Couture used the fraudulently obtained authorizations to secure the sale of client securities and transfers of the proceeds to his exclusive control, Couture then spnt the money for his own benefit. Couture went so far as to lull clients into believing that their sale proceeds had been actually reinvested by providing them with fabricated account systems and account holding reviews.  The SEC found that the fabricated statements contained securities transactions that never happened, investments that did not exist, and earnings that the clients never received for the purposes of creating the false appearance that Couture had reinvested his clients’ money.

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shutterstock_143448874-300x199The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor Steven Rodemer (Rodemer) has been accused by his former employer and a financial regulator of taking money from a client account for his personal use among other allegations.  According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rodemer was terminated by his prior employer, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated (Stifel, Nicolaus) concerning his theft and misappropriation of client funds.  If you have been a victim of Rodemer’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

In December 2019 Stifel, Nicolaus terminated Rodemer after alleging that he took money from a client account for his personal use without authorization.

Thereafter, in March 2020, FINRA brought a regulatory action and fount that Rodemer consented to sanctions and findings that he refused to provide on-the-record testimony requested by FINRA during its investigation into the conduct disclosed in a Form U5 submitted by his member firm. FINRA determined that the firm submitted the Form U5 terminating Rodemer for taking money from a client account for his personal use without authorization.

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shutterstock_71240-300x183The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor Paris Lewis (Lewis) has been accused by his former employer of borrowing funds from a client among other allegations.  According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Lewis has been terminated by his two prior employers concerning his outside business activities.  According to BrokerCheck records, Lewis was formerly registered with FINRA member firm NYLife Securities LLC (NYLife Securities) and MetLife Securities Inc. (MetLife).  If you have been a victim of Lewis alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

In December 2019 NYLife Securities terminated Mr. Lewis after alleging that he was terminated after he violated company policy by borrowing money from a customer. The company became aware of this matter when the company received a verbal customer complaint.

In February 2015 Metlife terminated Mr. Lewis after alleging that he did not follow firm policy regarding outside business activities.

Our law firm has significant experience bringing cases on behalf of defrauded victims when their advisors engage in receiving loans from clients or selling securities sales through OBAs.  The sale of unapproved investment products – is a practice known in the industry as “selling away” – a serious violation of the securities laws.  In the industry the term selling away refers to when a financial advisor solicits investments in companies, promissory notes, or other securities that are not pre-approved by the broker’s affiliated firm.  Sometimes those investments have some legitimacy but often times these types of investments can end up being Ponzi schemes or the advisor can be engaging in the conversion of funds.

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shutterstock_186471755-300x200The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor John Cahill (Cahill) has converted customer funds among other allegations.  According to BrokerCheck records, Cahill is formerly registered with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member firm Janney Montgomery Scott LLC (Janney).  In addition, Cahill disclosed one customer complaint, two employment terminations for cause, and one regulatory action.  If you have been a victim of Cahill’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

According to FINRA, Cahill consented to sanctions and to findings that he refused provide documents and information and to appear for testimony requested by FINRA in connection with an investigation into allegations that he commingled and/or converted funds belonging to, and served as power-of-attorney for, an elderly individual who was his customer while he was associated with his former member firm.

In March 2019 Janney terminated Cahill stating that he was discharged while under internal review regarding receipt of funds while acting as POA for a client.

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shutterstock_1744162-300x200The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor Gerald Eaton (Eaton) was terminated by his firm and then barred from the securities industry over allegations that he engaged in wrongful taking of customer funds among other allegations.  According to BrokerCheck records, Eaton was formerly registered with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member firm Commonwealth Financial Network (CommonWealth Financial).  If you have been a victim of Eaton’s alleged misconduct our firm may be able to assist you in recovering funds.

In November 2019 FINRA barred Eaton finding that Eaton consented to the sanction and findings that he failed to provide documents and information requested by FINRA in connection with its investigation. FINRA stated that in the Form U5, Eaton’s member firm stated that the reason for the termination was that he fraudulently facilitated distributions from clients’ accounts without their knowledge or consent or for their benefit.  Commonwealth discharged Eaton in October 2019 for forgery and the wrongful taking of property.

According to Eaton’s publicly disclosed records the only outside business activities disclosed including The Heritage Financial Group and subleasing office space.  It is unclear at this time whether FINRA’s allegations concern these entities.

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shutterstock_156764942-200x300The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating multiple claims that advisor Robert High (High) has engaged in a misappropriation scheme.  High, formerly registered with First Financial Equity Corporation (First Financial) and operating out of Scottsdale, Arizona, has been accused by a customer of engaging in securities fraud and misappropriating funds.

In February 2019 the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an investigation into High for alleged misappropriation of funds and forgery.  Shortly thereafter First Financial terminated High claiming that he was in violation of firm’s policies.  In March 2019 a client filed a complaint alleging that High misappropriated funds causing $146,000 in funds.  The claim is currently pending.

Also in March 2019, FINRA suspended High for failing to respond to the regulator’s requests for documents and information.  If High continues to fail to respond he will be barred from the securities industry.

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shutterstock_143685652-300x300According to BrokerCheck records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) advisor Christopher Hellman (Hellman), formerly associated with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Merrill Lynch) in December 2018, was sanctioned and barred from the securities industry by FINRA over accusations of potentially selling unapproved products.

In December 2018 FINRA alleged that Hellman consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he failed to provide FINRA with requested documents and information during its investigation.  FINRA found that Merrill Lynch terminated Hellman’s registration for conduct including failure to adhere to firm standards regarding selling away and failure to fully disclose participation in outside business activities.

The providing of loans, misappropriating funds through false pretenses, or selling of notes and other investments outside of a brokerage firm constitutes impermissible private securities transactions – a practice known in the industry as “selling away”.

At this time it is unclear the nature and scope of Hellman’s activities.  Hellman’s disclosures do not include any outside business activities (OBAs) disclosures.

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shutterstock_46993942-300x200According to BrokerCheck records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) former advisor John Schmidt (Schmidt), formerly associated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (Wells Fargo) in Dayton, Ohio has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of misappropriating over $1.16 million from at least seven clients.

In September 2018 the SEC filed a complaint alleging that for the past 35 years Schmidt has been a registered representative in the brokerage industry.  The SEC found that from at least 2003 through 2017, Schmidt betrayed his customers’ trust by perpetrating a classic fraudulent scheme, acting without customer authorization, and repeatedly selling securities belonging to some of his brokerage customers and secretly transferring the sale proceeds to cover shortfalls in the accounts of other customers.   The SEC alleged that Schmidt misappropriated over $1.16 million from accounts belonging to seven customers and transferred that cash to at least ten other customers whose accounts were experiencing shortfalls.  In addition, the commission found that rather than tell those customers the truth about their dwindling funds, Schmidt sent them fake account statements and falsely assured the customers that their investment returns could fund their withdrawals without jeopardizing their principal. Most of Schmidt’s customers were elderly retirees with little to no financial expertise and several of Schmidt’s victims were suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.  The SEC claimed that at least five of Schmidt’s victims passed away during the course of his fraud. Further, Schmidt’s allegedly profited from the scheme and received over $230,000 in commissions from customers who were either the source of, or recipient of, misappropriated funds.

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