An irreverent Wall Street Blog
BrokeAndBroker.com Blog by Bill Singer WEEK IN REVIEW
February 28, 2015
After Credit Card Expense Suspension, Stockbroker Barred By Liens And Judgments
If you were lucky to dodge a regulatory bullet, don't count on your deft footwork to bail you out a second time. In a recent FINRA regulatory settlement, we have the circumstance of a registered person who improperly charged his firm's credit card for personal expenses and managed to resolve things via a relatively modest suspension and a fine. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived reprieve and the second time he was named as a Respondent in a regulatory matter, his career would end in flames. READ
Sometimes a cigar is a cigar. Sometimes a fish is a fish -- or a grouper. Sometimes, however, federal prosecutors would have you believe that a fish is a digital drive on which evidence is written and archived and . . . well, you know how the Law can be. In today's BrokeAndBroker.com Blog, we come across an equally provocative and absurd United States Supreme Court case, where we find a fisherman facing 20 years in federal prison for throwing fish overboard. Think I'm kidding? Consider this quote from the oral argument:
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: But the point is that you could, and the point is that once you can, every time you get somebody who is throwing fish overboard, you can go to him and say: Look, if we prosecute you you're facing 20 years, so why don't you plead to a year, or something like that. It's an extraordinary leverage that the broadest interpretation of this statute would give Federal prosecutors.
Audio and Written Transcript of Oral Argument Online. READ
In some ways, this disaster started out admirably with a registered representative father trying to find a way to leave his book of business for his son. The Devil is in the details and how the father went about his plans made all the difference -- and not in a good way. After moving through the FINRA disciplinary process, we wind up at the SEC, not once but twice. READ
Stockbroker, Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory Jobs. READ
The hotly contested, high-profile Wall Street employment lawsuit of Wile v. FINRA found the industry's self-regulatory organization defending against charges by a former Deputy Regional Director. Plaintiff Wile's allegations touched on purportedly discriminatory practices involving disability, sex, and age -- and also brought an unflattering scrutiny of FINRA's arbitration forum. Consequently, the outcome of this federal lawsuit was of interest to many constituencies. Read how it all turned out. READ