FINRA Complaint Filed Against New York's Legend Securities and Brokers Michael Salvatore Stanton and Hank Mark Werner

Soreide Law Group obtained the following complaint on FINRA’s website under, “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions, January 2017.”
(Issuance of a disciplinary complaint represents FINRA’s initiation of a formal proceeding in which findings as to the allegations in the complaint have not been made, and does not represent a decision as to any of the allegations contained in the complaint. Because these complaints are unadjudicated, you may wish to contact the respondents before drawing any conclusions regarding the allegations in the complaint.)

Legend Securities, Inc. (CRD #44952, New York, New York), Michael Salvatore Stanton (CRD #1448072, Warren, New Jersey) and Hank Mark Werner (CRD #1615495, Northport, New York)
were named respondents in an amended FINRA complaint alleging that Hank Werner churned and excessively traded each of a client’s three accounts, charging more than $243,000 in commissions and fees, and causing the client net losses of nearly $184,000, within just over three years. The FINRA complaint also alleges that Werner recommended an unsuitable variable annuity exchange to the client, without having a reasonable basis to believe that the transaction was suitable. The firm and Werner received a commission of $11,799.81 on the sale, of which $10,030 was paid to Werner.
The FINRA complaint further alleges that Legend Securities failed to establish, maintain and enforce a reasonable supervisory system by failing to enforce its WSPs for heightened supervision of Werner. Legend Securities failed to prepare a plan of heightened supervision, and it failed to place Werner on heightened supervision at any time during his association with the firm despite meeting its criteria for heightened supervision.
Also the FINRA complaint alleges that Legend Securities and Stanton failed to establish, maintain and enforce a reasonable supervisory system, and failed to enforce its WSPs, to prevent Werner from churning and excessively trading the customer’s brokerage accounts. Legend Securities and Stanton failed to adequately investigate red flags demonstrating that Werner was churning the client’s accounts.
Legend Securities and Stanton also failed to adequately investigate, or simply ignored, that Werner engaged in aggressive, “in-and-out” trading, repeatedly purchasing securities and then selling them after relatively short holding periods to purchase other securities, for no apparent reason. Such in-and-out trading is a hallmark of excessive trading and churning.
(FINRA Case #2015048048801)
If you were a client of New York's Legend Securities and/or brokers Michael Salvatore Stanton or Hank Mark Werner and experienced losses due to their recommendations or actions, contact Soreide Law Group for a no-cost consultation with a Securities Lawyer regarding the possible recovery of your financial losses at:  888-760-6552.
Soreide Law Group represents our clients nationwide before FINRA and we operate on a contingency fee basis.