Former Merrill Lynch financial advisor, JESSE JOSEPH HOLOVACKO (CRD#: 5112298), 39 years-old from Sayreville, New Jersey, was convicted of defrauding his client out of his retirement savings and using the funds for his own benefit. Holovacko was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and one count of investment advisor fraud. The Financial Industry Regulatory […]

THOMAS HOWARD CANIFORD (TOM CANIFORD) CRD#: 1049021 a former LPL Financial broker who pled guilty in Ohio to 135 counts in 2016, had an order filed against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 30, 2017 to bar him from the securities industry.  Tom Caniford was permanently barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory […]

Austin Wayne Morton (AUSTIN W MORTON) CRD#: 5538108 was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he converted a total of $36,000 from an 82-year-old former client with dementia. The complaint alleges that Morton first took $20,000 in cash from the client shortly after the client, accompanied by Morton, had withdrawn the cash […]

Dublin, Ohio, financial advisor, JON B. SCHMIDHAMMER (CRD# 1548931), 62, was indicted by a grand jury Monday, August 15, 2016, on one count of theft from a person in a protected class and unlawful securities practices. Schmidhammer is accused of allegedly stealing a half-million dollars from his elderly client’s account and is now facing two […]

RICHARD W. OHRN (CRD# 5106991) Boca Raton was barred by FINRA over a complaint filed against Ohrn for the theft of $15,250 from two elderly clients’ accounts. Ohrn neither admitted to or denied FINRA's findings. Allegedly Ohrn also forged the signatures of four firm clients according to FINRA and changed the addresses of these clients […]

Phil Donnahue Williamson, a Miami investment advisor, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with taking money from his investment fund and defrauding investors, which included several local teachers and law enforcement officers. The SEC is accusing Phil Donnahue Williamson with conducting a Ponzi scheme with money he raised for the Sterling Investment […]

Robert Durant Tucker (CRD #1725356, New York, New York) was barred by FINRA and the SEC dismissed Tucker’s appeal of the NAC decision. This sanction was based on FINRA's findings that Tucker allegedly improperly approved the transfer of client funds to his personal checking account by falsifying a wire transfer form to give it the […]

Ralph A. Saviano, a 72 year-old financial advisor from Bridgewater, New Jersey, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for taking $138,000 from two elderly investors. Saviano told his clients that he was investing their money in conservative investments when in fact he was taking the money for his own personal use. Saviano had pled […]

George Wayne Hoffman (CRD #5068220, Parkville, Maryland) was barred by FINRA for allegedly converting $17,000 from an elderly client for his own benefit, without the client’s knowledge or authorization. FINRA's findings stated that Hoffman used falsified letters of authorization (LOAs) to cause his firm to transfer money from the client’s account at the firm to […]