NOTE: Stipulations of Fact and Consent to Penalty (SFC); Offers of Settlement (OS); and Letters of Acceptance Waiver, and Consent (AWC) are entered into by Respondents without admitting or denying the allegations, but consent is given to the described sanctions & to the entry of findings. Additionally, for AWCs, if FINRA has reason to believe a violation has occurred and the member or associated person does not dispute the violation, FINRA may prepare and request that the member or associated person execute a letter accepting a finding of violation, consenting to the imposition of sanctions, and agreeing to waive such member's or associated person's right to a hearing before a hearing panel, and any right of appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council, the SEC, and the courts, or to otherwise challenge the validity of the letter, if the letter is accepted. The letter shall describe the act or practice engaged in or omitted, the rule, regulation, or statutory provision violated, and the sanction or sanctions to be imposed.

CBG Financial Group, Inc.
AWC/2010021106701/October 2011

The Firm allowed a statutorily disqualified person to associate with the firm.

The individual acted in an associated capacity for the firm, with its knowledge and consent, by

• keeping regular business hours at the firm,
• maintaining a
• desk at the firm’s office,
• a telephone extension at the firm, and
• a firm sponsored email account;
• regularly communicating with customers in an effort to maintain their accounts at the firm and to preserve his relationships with them; and
• handling administrative matters for the firm.

The firm initiated numerous telephone solicitations to persons whose numbers were in the national do-not call registry of the Federal Trade Commission (DNC Registry) at the time of the calls.

Tto achieve compliance with telemarketing rules and regulations, the firm used, and still uses, a system that blocks outbound phone calls to phone numbers in the DNC Registry. In order to call a phone number in the DNC Registry from a firm phone line, the firm must manually place the number on a list in the system (Allow List); calls to phone numbers on the Allow List bypass the screening system, irrespective of whether the number is in the DNC Registry. A firm principal added numerous phone numbers to the Allow List; the numbers came from leads that the firm had purchased. In addition, the firm maintained that it thought the leads consisted solely of business phone numbers that are not subject to certain do-not-call restrictions. Moreover, the firm placed calls to phone numbers that it had added to the Allow List; a substantial percentage were personal phone numbers that were in the DNC Registry when the firm initiated telephone solicitations to them.

CBG Financial Group, Inc.: Censured; Fined $50,000

Tags:  Statutory Disqualification    Do Not Call     |    In: Cases of Note : FINRA