Duarte borrowed $50,000 in the form of a promissory note from a customer to start a business buying up distressed properties, and in order to do this, he needed money to establish a credit line. hen Duarte received the loan, his member firm’s written procedures prohibited employees from accepting or soliciting loans from firm customers/ He has not fully repaid the loan.

Also, Duarte engaged in an outside business activity without providing his firm with written notice of the activity; Duarte failed to disclose or obtain his firm’s written permission of his outside business activity of purchasing distressed properties. Duarte made misrepresentations to his firm in an annual compliance certification that he had not accepted any loans from customers and was not engaged in any outside business activities when, in fact, he had already obtained a loan from the customer and was engaged in an outside business activity.

Ray solicited prospective investors to purchase promissory notes as a vehicle to fund the start up of a hedge fund and to pay the ongoing operations of the fund; investors purchased more than $675,000 in promissory notes from Ray. Ray represented he could pay above-U.S. market interest rates based in part on the fact he could obtain these rates by investing the funds in a foreign bank; Ray failed to invest the proceeds of the notes with the foreign bank, used some of the proceeds for personal expenses and used proceeds from later sales to pay interest and repay principal amounts due on notes earlier purchasers held.

Ray made materially misleading statements and omissions of fact, including misrepresenting the use of proceeds from the sale of the promissory notes, misrepresenting how and where the proceeds were to be invested, and failing to disclose he was using the proceeds from the sale of promissory notes to pay interest and principal amounts due to earlier note holders. Ray participated in private securities transactions through the sale of promissory notes without providing written notice to his firm describing in detail the proposed transaction, his role therein and stating whether he received, or would receive compensation, and without obtaining his firm’s approval.

Christensen sold approximately $650,000 in a company’s promissory notes to customers without providing his member firm with written notice of the promissory note transactions and receiving the firm’s approval to engage in these transactions.

Based upon expected interest payments from the promissory notes, some of the customers also purchased life insurance policies from Christensen and another registered representative the firm employed. These customers expected to use the promissory note interest payments to pay for the life insurance premiums.

Christensen received direct commissions from the company related to the sale of the promissory notes to customers and received commissions from the sale of life insurance products to the customers, who intended to fund those policies with the interest payments from the promissory notes.

The company defaulted on its obligations and the customers lost their entire investment. The customers who also purchased life insurance based upon the expectation that they would receive interest payments from their investment relinquished their policies and the firm compensated them for the premiums paid, but the customers did not receive any reimbursement for the investments in the company that sold the promissory notes.

Christensen completed a firm annual compliance questionnaire, in which he falsely stated that he had not been engaged in any capital raising activities for any person or entity; had not received fees for recommending or directing a client to other financial professionals; had not been personally involved in securities transactions, including promissory notes, that the firm had not approved; and had not assisted a client with an application for investments not available through the firm or contracted or otherwise acted as an intermediary between a client and a sponsor of such investments without the firm’s prior approval.

Finally, Christensen failed to respond to FINRA requests for documents and testimony.

Von Lumm borrowed $5,000 from one of his customers and executed a promissory note stating that the loan was to be paid in full by a certain date, with $1,000 interest. Von Lumm repaid approximately $2,100 to the customer but did not disclose the loan to his member firm, which prohibited its representatives from borrowing from customers.

The same customer gave Von Lumm $500 towards the purchase of auto and homeowners insurance, but Von Lumm failed to procure any insurance policies for the customer and did not immediately return the funds to the customer. Pursuant to the customer’s request, Von Lumm wrote a note to the customer promising to return the $500 and has since returned the funds to the customer.

Von Lumm provided an incomplete response to FINRA requests for information and failed to appear for testimony.

Blanchard participated in private securities transactions when a client of his accounting firm purchased promissory notes an individual issued. The findings stated that Blanchard failed to provide written notice to his firm describing in detail the proposed transactions with the individual issuing the promissory notes, his proposed role therein, and stating whether he had received or might receive selling compensation in connection with the transactions. Blanchard introduced the client to the individual, and the client invested a total of approximately $325,000 in the individual’s promissory notes as a result of Blanchard’s referrals.

The individual paid Blanchard about $16,434 in selling compensation for his referral. The customer lost approximately $290,000 as a result of the investment, and the firm made full restitution to Blanchard’s client even though he was not a customer of the firm.

McLean failed to provide written notice of his involvement in unapproved private securities transactions to his member firm and lied to his firm during monthly supervisory meetings. McLean’s member firm prohibited its registered representatives from engaging in any private securities transactions unless they were personal investments and only after obtaining the firm’s prior written approval, but McLean referred a customer and another individual to someone who was raising monies for real estate projects. These individuals invested approximately $75,000 in promissory notes with entities controlled by the individual to whom McLean referred them, and McLean received $1,500 in cash for the referrals. Because of concerns stemming from items reported on McLean’s personal credit report, his firm placed him on heightened supervision and, among other things, McLean was required to meet with his supervisor monthly to discuss securities-related and outside business activities; but not once during these meetings did McLean disclose his involvement with the individual. On seven separate occasions, he signed statements affirming that he was not engaged in outside business activity beyond those already disclosed and that it was unnecessary to update his Form U4.

While employed by another member firm, McLean acted as an agent for an entity not affiliated with his firm and over which his firm had no control, without providing written notice to his firm or receiving his firm’s approval to serve in this role. In addition, as an agent for the entity, McLean introduced individuals to an individual through whom they invested in a purported diamond mining operation. Moreover, these individuals entered into promissory notes, investing more than $40,000 with an entity the individual controlled. Furthermore, in addition to making referrals, as an agent for the entity, McLean was expected to provide financial and consulting advice to investors once their investments began earning profits, and in exchange, McLean stood to earn $2 million worth of shares in a company the individual controlled.

McLean failed to respond fully to FINRA requests for documents and information. 

Adler participated in private securities transactions when customers of his accounting firm and customers of his member firm purchased promissory notes an individual issued. Adler failed to provide written notice to his firm describing in detail the proposed transactions with the individual issuing the promissory notes, his proposed role therein, and stating whether he had received or might receive selling compensation in connection with the transactions.

Adler introduced his clients to the individual and they invested a total of approximately $2.5 million in the individual’s promissory notes as a result of Adler’s referrals. The individual paid Adler approximately $16,434 in selling compensation for his referral. The customers and the investors lost a total of approximately $2,103,375 and the firm made full restitution to Adler’s clients even though some were not customers of the firm.

Rivera borrowed a total of approximately $19,000 from a firm customer, signing promissory notes for the loans, contrary to firm policy that prohibited representatives from borrowing from a customer unless the customer was an immediate family member and the representative received the firm’s prior written approval. The customer was not a family member and Rivera never informed the firm of the loan.

Rivera failed to repay the funds in full and his firm entered into a settlement with the customer, repaying the $17,700 still owed to the customer; Rivera did not make any contribution to the settlement.

Sibert failed to provide written notice to, and receive written approval from, his member firm for his participation in private securities transactions, and lied to his firm about his activities in these transactions. Sibert’s firm prohibited its registered representatives from participating in any manner in the sale of any security, registered or unregistered, not processed through the firm, without prior written approval, but Sibert solicited his firm’s customers and potential customers to invest in his company, which was purportedly raising monies to invest in real estate developments and gold-mining operations. Some of these individuals invested over $1 million with Sibert’s company and some invested over $800,000 in promissory notes.

Sibert signed an annual compliance questionnaire falsely stating that he was not engaging in private securities transactions.Sibert failed to fully respond to FINRA requests for information and documents, and failed to respond to a FINRA request to appear for testimony.

McRoberts effected private securities transactions without requesting and receiving her member firms’ permission. McRoberts sold $142,128 in promissory notes secured by pooled life settlements. Prior to engaging in these transactions, while associated with one of the firms, McRoberts had signed an Acknowledgement of Receipt and Review of Compliance Procedure Manual which stated that no private securities (or other investment or insurance) transaction may in any way be participated in by a representative unless the compliance director approves it in advance. Despite McRoberts’ acknowledgement of the firm’s procedures, she failed to give written notice of her intention to participate in the sale of the securities to, and failed to obtain written approval from, her firm prior to the transactions. McRoberts effected private securities transactions while registered with another member firm and also failed to give written notice of her intention to participate in the sale of the securities, and failed to obtain her firm’s written approval prior to the transaction. McRoberts received $9,600 in commissions from the transactions. In addition,

McRoberts failed to conduct adequate due diligence and thus had no reasonable basis to determine whether the investments were suitable for her clients.

Adler participated in private securities transactions when customers of his member firm and his accounting firm purchased promissory notes an individual issued. Adler failed to provide written notice to his firm describing in detail the proposed transactions with the individual issuing the promissory notes, his proposed role therein, and stating whether he had received or might receive selling compensation in connection with the transactions.

Adler introduced the customers to the individual and they invested a total of about $700,000 in the individual’s promissory notes as a result of Adler’s referrals. The individual paid Adler approximately $16,434 in selling compensation for his referral. The customers lost approximately $630,000, and the firm made full restitution to Adler’s clients even though one was not a customer of the firm.

Kang made loans totaling at least $294,000 to a firm customer who was also a close personal friend. The loans were in the form of cash and checks to the customer and undertaken to assist the customer in meeting her business obligations.

Although the customer had signed promissory notes, she died and Kang has not been fully repaid. At the time she made the loans, Kang was aware that her member firm did not permit loans from or to customers unless they were immediate family members; however, Kang did not obtain pre-approval from her firm prior to lending monies to the customer, nor did she otherwise inform the firm of the loans.

McKinnon recommended the purchase of bonds, bond funds and annuities to an elderly customer who entrusted McKinnon with funds for their purchase. McKinnon deposited the funds into his personal bank account and made improper use of the funds, which included payment of personal expenses.

McKinnon accepted additional funds from the customer, which he used for personal expenses, and accepted additional funds from the customer in exchange for a promissory note he signed. McKinnon did not notify his member firm nor obtain its approval prior to entering into this arrangement with the customer. McKinnon provided false and misleading statements during FINRA testimony regarding the amount of funds he had accepted from the customer, the disposition of the funds and his purchases of securities for the customer in connection with the receipt of the funds.

Keys made untrue statements and omissions in connection with the sale of a security; specifically, Keys recommended that a customer invest $1.1 million in a promissory note and represented to the customer that the promissory note was secured by $1.1 million in United States Treasury Bonds, when in fact, no such bonds existed. Keys provided wiring instructions to the customer in connection with the recommended purchase directing her to wire funds to the bank account of the issuing entity’s owner. Keys failed to investigate and discover that no treasury bonds existed, and instead relied on information he was given during a conference call initiated by the issuer’s owner to an unknown individual who claimed to be a representative of a well-known financial institution, the purported current custodian of the bonds; and Keys failed to investigate whether the unknown individual was in fact the financial institution’s employee.

At the time of Keys’ recommendation to the customer, he did not disclose the compensation, direct or indirect, that he expected to receive. The first time the customer discovered that any commission would be paid in connection with the sale of the note was when she received the note itself, delivered several weeks after she had wired the funds for the purchase; the note disclosed that a commission would be paid in connection with the note, but it erroneously stated that $50,000 would be paid to Keys’ member firm, and it did not disclose that Keys wholly owned the entity that received an additional $50,000. Keys was responsible for establishing, maintaining and enforcing his firm’s supervisory control policies and procedures, but failed to implement reasonable supervisory controls when he failed to ensure that an individual at the firm who was senior to or otherwise independent of himself supervised and reviewed his customer account activity.

Mailloux participated in private securities transactions without prior written notice to, or prior written approval from, his member firm. Mailloux referred customers to another registered representative of the firm, who executed promissory notes, called “private investor agreements,” with the customers on a corporation’s behalf. The findings also stated that the promissory notes, which were securities, indicated that the corporation promised to pay 10 percent and 12 percent annual interest, respectively, in return for the loans. The corporation subsequently defaulted on its payment obligations to Mailloux’s customers, who incurred significant losses, and Mailloux did not inform his firm about his customers’ investments.

Mailloux received a finder’s fee of $500 from the firm’s other registered representative for the investment one of the customers made.