Federal Court Grapples With Compliance Officer's Whistleblowing to FINRA
(BrokeAndBroker.com Blog)

http://www.brokeandbroker.com/4752/FINRA-Whistleblowing/

Day after day, FINRA rolls out bull-shit notices to members about initiatives, about seminars, about retrospective rule reviews. Absent from that spew of self-serving crapola is anything addressing the firing of compliance officers who report their concerns to FINRA. You'd sort of like to think that FINRA would want to draw a line in the sand when it comes to retaliation by its member firms against those who blow the whistle. You'd sort of like to think that FINRA appreciates the need to bolster Wall Street's first line of defense; namely, the industry's compliance staff. Instead, FINRA caters and panders to its powerful industry interests. What rank hypocrisy! What worse condemnation could there be of the inherent failure of Wall Street self-regulation then to see its largest self-regulatory-organization stand silent and impotent in the face of retaliation against compliance staff who are protecting the investing public and preserving whatever shreds of integrity remain on Wall Street. In a recent federal lawsuit, FINRA member firm Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Inc. was sued by a former compliance officer, who alleged, in part, that she had been fired for whistleblowing to FINRA. It may be that the Plaintiff's concerns were wrong. It may be that she was dead-on. We'll leave that final determination to the courts. Regardless, as you read through the court's opinion, you realize that FINRA is largely absent from the unfolding events. Be that as it may, the federal court's initial concern is not with FINRA's action or inaction but with determining whether the compliance officer filed a Complaint that stated a claim and presented the basis for jurisdiction against her former employer and associated firms and individuals.

Pro Se Customer Alleges Unsuitability of Self Directed Put Sales
(BrokeAndBroker.com Blog)

http://www.brokeandbroker.com/4750/FINRA-Put-Sales/

Some litigants jump the gun in an effort to improve the so-called "optics" of litigation. In situations where two parties each have claims against the other, there's a sense that it's better to be cast in the role of the Claimant than of the Respondent. The theory is that it's better to frame the lawsuit in the language of the aggrieved rather than as the alleged malefactor. In a recent FINRA arbitration, a public customer representing himself pro se sought to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in put-sales losses. In response to his claims, the respondent brokerage firm counterclaimed for a couple of hundred thousand in its own claimed damages. 

FINRA Conducts Retrospective Rule Review on Senior Investors
(BrokeAndBroker.com Blog)

http://www.brokeandbroker.com/4749/finra-senior-investors/