Category: Enforcement

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Fined: Southeast Investments, N.C., Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Southeast Investments, N.C., Inc. Fined by FINRA

28 May 2019

The firm and Black appealed a National Adjudicatory Council (NAC) decision to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm was fined a total of $146,500, of which $73,500 is joint and several with Black. Black was barred from association with any FINRA® member in any capacity. The NAC affirmed in part and reversed in part the findings and affirmed in part, vacated in part and modified in part the sanctions imposed by the Office of Hearing Officers (OHO).

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Fined: Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. Fined by FINRA

13 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $225,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that its system for supervising additions to existing variable annuities was not reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws and FINRA rules, including those governing suitability.

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Fined: Oriental Financial Services Corp. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Oriental Financial Services Corp. Fined by FINRA

13 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $20,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it included language conditioning the settlement of two arbitration proceedings on the customers’ agreements to consent to, and not to oppose, expungement of their claims from the CRD® system.

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Fined: FIS Brokerage & Securities LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

FIS Brokerage & Securities LLC Fined by FINRA

7 May 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $25,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it submitted Reportable Order Events (ROEs) to the Order Audit Trail System (OATS™) that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or improperly formatted data. The findings stated that the firm used a platform for its OATS reporting that was provided by a third-party vendor. The OATS violations were caused by system errors that developed when the firm’s vendor made changes to its platform. The errors were later remediated.

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Fined: Spencer Edwards, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Spencer Edwards, Inc. Fined by FINRA

2 May 2019

An OHO decision became final after the firm withdrew its appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council (NAC). The firm was suspended from association with FINRA in all capacities for 45 business days, censured, fined $495,000, ordered to offer rescission to customers, ordered to impose a six-month pre-use filing requirement for all of its communications with customers and required to retain an independent outside consultant to review and revise the firm’s supervisory procedures.

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Fined: Stonecrest Capital Markets, Inc. fka Redwine & Company, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Stonecrest Capital Markets, Inc. fka Redwine & Company, Inc. Fined by FINRA

26 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $15,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to report transactions in Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine® (TRACE®)-eligible fixed income securities. The findings stated that the firm failed to accurately record the terms and conditions of customer orders on its books and records. The firm failed to mark order tickets for securities transactions as either solicited or unsolicited. Instead, the section of the order ticket where that information was supposed to be noted was marked N/A.

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Fined: McDonald Partners LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

McDonald Partners LLC Fined by FINRA

22 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $22,500. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to report certain municipal securities transactions to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s (MSRB) real-time transaction reporting system. The findings stated that the firm failed to report both the purchases into its riskless principal account and the sales to its investment adviser clients of certain riskless principal transactions.

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Fined: Arbor Research & Trading, LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

Arbor Research & Trading, LLC Fined by FINRA

21 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $25,000 and required to enhance its supervisory system, including its WSPs, to ensure it establishes, documents and maintains a system of risk management controls and supervisory procedures reasonably designed to manage the financial, regulatory and other risks of its business activity related to market access.

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Fined: Corinthian Partners, L.L.C. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Corinthian Partners, L.L.C. Fined by FINRA

18 March 2019

A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $30,000 and required to submit a written certification to FINRA that its policies, systems and procedures (including written procedures) and training, in connection with non-traditional exchange traded products (non-traditional ETPs), are reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA Rule 2111(a) relating to suitability.

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Fined: Cowen and Company, LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

Cowen and Company, LLC Fined by FINRA

18 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $175,000 and required to revise its supervisory system and WSPs with respect to its compliance with its OATS reporting obligation. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it transmitted reports to OATS that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or improperly formatted data. The findings stated that the ROEs contained inaccurate Firm Order Identifications (FOIDs).

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Fined: Accelerated Capital Group, Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Accelerated Capital Group, Inc. Fined by FINRA

15 March 2019

An Office of Hearing Officers (OHO) decision became final in which the firm was censured, fined $400,000 and ordered to pay $422,029.53, plus interest, in restitution to six customers. The sanctions were based on findings that the firm failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system and written procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable federal securities laws, regulations and NASD®/FINRA rules.

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Fined: Sigma Financial Corporation Fined by FINRA

Fined

Sigma Financial Corporation Fined by FINRA

7 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $100,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system and WSPs reasonably designed to achieve compliance with securities laws, regulations and FINRA rules applicable to the sales of leveraged, inverse and inverse-leveraged ETFs.

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Fined: Parkland Securities, LLC Fined by FINRA

Fined

Parkland Securities, LLC Fined by FINRA

7 March 2019

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $20,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system and WSPs reasonably designed to achieve compliance with securities laws, regulations and FINRA rules applicable to the sales of leveraged, inverse and inverse-leveraged ExchangeTraded Funds (ETFs).

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