Securities Lawyers Blog
According to BrokerCheck records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Justin Deiter (Deiter), previously associated with Spartan Capital Securities, LLC, has been subject to at least one disclosable event. These events include one tax lien. Several of those complaints against Deiter concern allegations of high frequency trading activity also referred to as churning or excessive trading among other securities laws violations.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on February 06, 2025.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Deiter consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he willfully violated Reg BI by recommending to two retail customers a series of trades that were excessive and not in the best interest of the customers, one of whom was an 89-year-old retiree. The findings stated that Deiter’s trading resulted in high turnover rates and cost-to-equity ratios that exceeded the traditional guideposts of six and 20 percent. Deiter’s recommended transactions in the first customer’s account generated $19,792 in commissions and caused $25,291 in realized losses. The trading in the elderly customer’s account generated $28,264 in commissions and caused $33,363 in realized losses.
In a practice known as churning, brokers may execute numerous trades, occasionally involving the same stock, over a brief span. Every month, part of the account are replaced by different securities. This type of investment trading activity in the client’s account serves no reasonable purpose for the investor and is engaged in only to profit the broker through the generation of commissions created by the trades. As a deceptive practice, churning falls under the umbrella of securities fraud. The elements of the claim 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. 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.
Deiter has been in the securities industry for more than 16 years. Deiter has been registered as a Broker with Spartan Capital Securities, LLC since 2020.
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.