On the website of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), it was announced August 23, 2012, that FINRA fined Rodman & Renshaw LLC $315,000 for supervisory and other violations relating to the interaction between the firm's research and investment banking functions. Rodman's former CCO, William A. Iommi Sr., was fined $15,000, suspended from acting in […]

William Thomas Johnson Jr. (CRD #1189117, Registered Representative, North Palm Beach, Florida) was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Johnson consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he received approximately $47,000 from a customer after Johnson made the representation, which […]

Marcelo Ivan Jacir (CRD #4860487, Registered Representative, Weston, Florida) was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Jacir consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he directed two individuals, one of whom was a customer of his member firm, to deposit […]

JHS Capital Advisors Inc. and a former broker, Enver R. Alijaj, were fined $1.9 million in a Finra arbitration last week stemming from allegations that the broker traded in a client's account excessively to generate commissions. The broker was also forced to pay $500,000 to settle a previous charge of churning. Churning is illegal and unethical. On the […]

Thomas Edward Kelly (CRD #1386403, Registered Principal, Johnson City, New York) was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Kelly consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he engaged in a scheme to defraud investors, including firm customers, of funds totaling […]

  Kyle Timothy Holland (CRD #2308543, Registered Principal, Austin, Texas)  was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Holland consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that, acting in the capacity of his member firm’s managing director, he engaged in activities requiring […]

  Randy Craig Hester (CRD #1382578, Registered Representative, Highland Park, Illinois)   was censured, fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any member firm in any capacity for one year. The fine must be paid either immediately upon Hester’s reassociation with a FINRA member firm following his suspension, or prior to the filing of any […]

Thomas Eugene Hendricks (CRD #2622427, Registered Representative, Salem, Ohio) was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying thefindings, Hendricks consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he borrowed $3,000 from a customer/personal friend to be repaid by a certain date, but failed to […]

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., issued an investor alert about the risks of ETNs, exchange-traded notes, after an investigation of Credit Suisse and Barclays ETNs this year. ETNs are often thought of as as ETFs, exchange-traded funds, but in reality, the two are very different.  ETNs are promissory notes written by banks to deliver the returns of an […]