FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, plan to warn parties in its arbitration hearings against using electronic devices to secretly record and transmit the proceedings writes Dan Jamieson in a recent article in InvestmentNews.com. This warning began by complaints from the Securities Experts' Roundtable Inc., a group of expert witnesses, about several instances of “electronic […]

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that it has added features to BrokerCheck to help users more easily access broker-dealer and investment adviser information. Many of the changes implemented by FINRA address recommendations made in a January, 2011. study by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported FINRA in an article on their website. […]

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, filed a Temporary Cease-and-Desist Order (TCDO) on November 5th., 2012, halting further fraudulent sales activities by Michigan-based WR Rice Financial Services and its owner Joel I. Wilson. FINRA also issued a complaint against WR Rice and Wilson charging fraud in the sales of limited partnership interests in entities affiliated […]

The following information was found on FINRA's website's "Disciplinary and Other Actions, November, 2012." Charles Eugene Bishop Jr. (CRD #1621380, Registered Principal, Pompano Beach, Florida) submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he was fined $7,500 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for two years. Without admitting or denying the […]

Jane E. O'Brien, 59, of Needham, MA, is facing securities fraud for allegedly bilking her client out of $240,000. O'Brien was working for Merrill Lynch in Boston as a financial advisor at the time. O'Brien allegedly told an elderly woman she was investing her money in thousands of shares of a New Hampshire-based company called […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, also known as FINRA, has been enforcing all types of annuity transaction misdeeds nationwide according to recent enforcement reports from the agency, writes Elizabeth Festa in a recent article for LifeHealthPro.com. FINRA recently censured a firm and fined it $40,000 to settle allegations that the firm failed to maintain required […]

A financial planner from Eugene, Oregon, James Scott McKee, was barred from the industry after he failed to comply with an arbitration award. FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, had alleged that McKee steered his clients to invest $372,000 in businesses which he had a financial interest. It also alleged that McKee used $652,215 in […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, has launched an investigation into the suspended Idaho broker, Vincenzo (Vince) Covino. Covino was employed at Legacy Wealth Management Group in Boise, and Prospera Financial Services. Covino was with LPL Financial until 2009. Vince Covino was fined and suspended by FINRA for borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a client, […]

Soreide Law Group is currently investigating potential claims for clients who lost money in UBS Willow Fund, LLC. The UBS Willow Fund is a close-ended fixed income mutual fund that launched in 2000, and is managed by UBS Willow Management, L.L.C. The Willow Fund primarily invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. […]