States

Jan 12th, 2015

Martin Kelly Capital Management Defrauds Professional Athletes

The SEC filed fraud charges against investment adviser Bill Crafton of Martin Kelly Capital Management. Apparently, Mr. Crafton has provided advisory services for professional athletes in […]
Jan 12th, 2015

SEC Accuses Prima Capital of Misappropriating Investor Funds

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Prima Capital Group and its owner, Efstratios “Elias” Argyropoulos, frittered away customer money on unauthorized day trading. Investors believed […]
Dec 8th, 2014

California Variable Annuities Broker Swapped Fluids to Close Sales

Antonio “Pedro” Vergaray Falcon of Granada Hills, California was terminated from NY Life after an internal investigation concluded that he had provided his own fluid samples […]
Dec 7th, 2014

FINRA alleges Buford Stockbroker Improperly Sold Risky, Private Securities

Kenneth Brownlee of AllState Financial Services allegedly convinced clients to invest in a private company without disclosing the sales to his employer, and while he received […]
Dec 6th, 2014

Seattle Stockbroker Suspended for Secretly Pushing Clients into Risky Pre-IPO Investments

Benjamin Doyle Maleche of LPL Financial was recently fined and suspended for failing to tell his member firm—JP Morgan at the time—that he was recommending his […]
Dec 5th, 2014

Were client funds stolen at Credit Agricole Securities?

Michael Gregg Lieberman was barred from association with FINRA members due to his failure to cooperate in an investigation regarding client funds he allegedly stole while […]
Dec 4th, 2014

Pleasant Hill Stockbroker Fined for Sending Bad Tweets

Jon Robert Hickman of Ladenburg Thalman & Co., Inc. was fined and suspended for Twitter posts about securities that were not fair and balanced, and also […]
Dec 3rd, 2014

Savannah Broker John Wesley DuRant, III Fined for Improper Sales of Equity-indexed Annuities

Mr. Durant of Pruco Securities—Prudential’s brokerage firm—was fined and suspended for improper sales of equity-indexed annuities. Equity-indexed annuities are complex financial products which generally pay high […]
Dec 2nd, 2014

San Diego Stockbroker Suspended for Unreported Involvement in Biotech Startup

Michael Dinerman of Piper Jaffray & Co. was fined and suspended from association with any FINRA member firm for failure to disclose outside business activities to […]
Dec 1st, 2014

Carlsbad Stockbroker Chase Bishop Casson Barred From Securities Industry

Mr. Casson of Trustmont Financial Group has been barred from association with any FINRA member firm in any capacity. He failed to comply with four requests […]