Articles Tagged with Douglas Guarino

shutterstock_103681238The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP is investigating Rockwell Global Capital LLC (Rockwell) after having filed a complaint on behalf of an investor. We have posted on several previous occasions that brokers at Rockwell have been alleged by dozens of investors in recent years of churning client accounts. In Three Rockwell Global Capital Brokers Accused of Securities Misconduct by Customers we wrote about three brokers, Robert E. Lee Jr. (Robert Lee), Douglas Guarino (Guarino), and Lawrence Lee (Lee) that have been the subject of at least 29 combined customer complaints. All three brokers have been accused by clients of churning their accounts and making unsuitable investment recommendations.

Recently, an arbitration panel awarded a customer and ordered Rockwell to pay $119,000 in compensation together with costs and attorneys fees due to claims that included excessive trading.

What is “churning”? This type of securities misconduct includes investment trading activity that serves no reasonable purpose for the investor and is transacted in order for the broker to generate commissions. The elements that an arbitration panel will look at to establish a churning claim, a species of securities fraud, are excessive transactions of securities, broker control over the account, and intent to defraud the investor by obtaining unlawful commissions. A similar claim, excessive trading, under FINRA’s suitability rule involves just the first two elements.

Rockwell Global Capital LLC (Rockwell) brokers Robert E. Lee Jr. (Robert Lee), Douglas Guarino (Guarino), and Lawrence Lee (Lee) have been the subject of at least 29 combined customer complaints.  All three brokers have been accused by clients of churning their accounts and making unsuitable investment recommendations.

Robert Lee first became registered in 1988.  From March 2005, through November 2009, Robert Lee was registered through former FINRA member firm GunnAllen.  Since November 2009, Robert Lee has been registered through Rockwell.

In August 2013, Robert Lee accepted a settlement with FINRA barring the broker from associating with any broker dealer.  FINRA found that between September 25, 2008, and October 31, 2008, while Robert Lee was registered with GunnAllen, Robert Lee failed to follow a customer’s instructions regarding the purchase of three securities.  FINRA also found that between September 2008, and at least December 2009, while Robert Lee was registered with two member firms, Robert Lee made material misrepresentations and omissions to a customer regarding the status of their investments.  Specifically, FINRA found that Robert Lee misrepresented to the client that certain investments had earned $49,591 in dividends when in fact the investments did not exist and no dividends had been earned.

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