DARRYL M COHEN formerly of MORGAN STANLEY

DARRYL MATTHEW COHEN (DARRYL M COHEN) previously registered both as a broker and as an investment advisor, was permanently barred by FINRA from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with a broker/dealer firm in December of 2021. Cohen was last registered with MORGAN STANLEY of Westlake Village, California from 06/05/2015 - 04/08/2021.

According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, available to the public on FINRA’s website, DARRYL M COHEN had been in the securities industry for 24 years and had been listed with 3 firms.  Cohen has 19 Disclosures on his FINRA CRD report, 14 are “Customer Disputes.”  The significance of Cohen’s disclosures is underscored in FINRA NOTICE to MEMBERS 03-49. FINRA conducted a review of the CRD’s of all registered representatives, only .41% had been the subject of 3 or more customer complaints. In other words, DARRYL M COHEN’s customer complaints rank him in the top one-hundredth percent of all registered representatives for customer complaints. 

Some of the allegations listed on the more recent settled disputes were, “Claimants allege, inter alia, that they paid excess fees and borrowed n a line of credit that was not necessary.” This dispute dated 11/24/2024 settled for $275,000.00.  Another dispute filed against DARRYL M COHEN dated 2/21/2024 alleged, “Claimant alleges, inter alia, selling away with respect to recommendation for outside business investment not authorized by MS and unauthorized transfers.”  This dispute settled for $250,000.00.

There is another dispute dated 10/1/2021 filed against DARRYL M COHEN with allegations of, “Claimants allege, inter alia, that payments were made without prior approval from their accounts and in that they were encouraged to use a Liquidity Access Line for real estate and life insurance policies for which they now claim they hold no interest. 2017-2019.”  This dispute settled for $1,575,000.00. On 4/6/2021 a dispute settled for $1,700,000.00 following allegations of, “Claimants allege, inter alia, unsuitability with respect to investments and Credit line - 2015 through 2020.” On 1/22/2021 a dispute against Cohen settled for $2,500,000.00, the allegations were, “Claimant alleges, inter alia, that payments were made without prior approval from their accounts and that they were encouraged to use a Liquidity Access Line for real estate and life insurance policies for which they now claim their hold no interest.”

There are pending “Regulatory” and “Criminal” charges filed against DARRYL M COHEN listed on BrokerCheck.  The pending Criminal charge is dated 3/23/2023 and lists the charges as, “WIRE FRAUD, CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WIRE FRAUD and Investment Advisor Fraud.”  The pending Regulatory charges filed against Cohen are dated 3/23/2023 and were initiated by the SEC.  The allegations are, “Between Oct 2017-April 2020, Cohen allegedly misappropriated $1 million from advisory clients by transferring funds without their understanding or authorization to outside investments and expenditures from which he personally benefitted.”

In an article from CNBC, they state that the Justice Department alleged that DARRYL M COHEN and the others engaged in fraud schemes to transfer roughly $13 million from NBA clients for personal uses.  According to the article, the DOJ claimed that Cohen and his alleged co-conspirators induced three clients to purchase overpriced life insurance policies that Cohen later used to do renovations on his home and pool, as well as pay off his credit card bills and give money to a romantic partner. The CNBC article adds, “We fully cooperated with the investigation and have resolved clients’ claims related to Mr. Cohen,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement. “Mr. Cohen was terminated from the Firm in March 2021 and has since been barred from the securities industry by FINRA.”

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