Securities Lawyers Blog
According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Neil Berlant (Berlant), previously associated with D.a. Davidson & CO., has at least 2 disclosable events. These events include one customer complaint, one regulatory event, alleging that Berlant recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on April 05, 2022.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Berlant consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he exercised discretionary trading authority in customer accounts without written authorization. The findings stated that Berlant obtained verbal permission from the customers to exercise discretion in their accounts and executed securities transactions in reliance on their grant of discretionary authority. However, none of the customers provided Berlant with prior written authorization for his use of discretion, and his member firm did not approve the accounts as discretionary. In addition, Berlant also falsely stated on falsely stated on three of his firm\\u2019s annual compliance questionnaires that he did not exercise discretion in customer accounts. The findings also stated that Berlant caused the firm to make and preserve inaccurate and incomplete books and records. Berlant used his personal e-mail address to communicate with firm customers about securities transactions in their firm accounts. Berlant did not disclose his use of his personal e-mail to the firm, or provide the firm with copies of his electronic correspondence with the customers. Berlant also falsely stated on three of the firm\\u2019s annual compliance questionnaires that he did not use a personal e-mail address for business-related communications, and deleted all records from his personal e-mail account during the course of the firm\\u2019s investigation. In addition, Berlant concealed his use of discretionary trading authority by improperly marking order tickets as unsolicited.