FINRA Penalizes South Florida Securities Brokers/Firm

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Jan. 22, 2014 - PRLog -- FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, penalized six South Florida members in January. One firm, NSM, is being investigated for abusive trading in the accounts of Indian customers.
Soreide Law Group, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has two pending actions against NSM Securities also involving abusive practices against clients of Indian descent. These cases involve allegations of churning, unauthorized trading, excessive commissions and fraud. Both cases will be heard before FINRA panels in 2014.
Recently FINRA said, "NSM's business model is to solicit customers who are high net worth individuals of Indian descent, and then engage in highly active trading strategy in their accounts involving only a few securities. During the relevant period, many NSM customer accounts were excessively traded in order to generate large fees for NSM registered representatives and the firm… Many NSM customers sustained significant losses throughout the relevant period."
It was also noted that in October, NSM was fined $7,000 by the Arkansas Securities Commissioner and was issued a "cease and desist" order. In 2012, NSM was fined $155,300 by FINRA for unauthorized trading activity.
These are the six penalized:
1. Irving Marvin Burstein, Boynton Beach, suspended for one year by FINRA. Currently working at R.M. Stark & Co. Delray Beach, the charges are from the time he was at NSM Securities in West Palm Beach from 2005 to 2011. Burstein was CCO at NSM and FINRA accused him of failing to enforce the financial regulations put in place to protect the clients, including abusive sales practices, unauthorized trading and churning accounts.
2. Shawn Paul Sapp, North Palm Beach, formerly with Ameriprise, barred by FINRA, accused of depositing a $10,000 check from a client into his personal account. The money was returned by Ameriprise to the client.
3. Lunick Jean Dorleus, Greenacres with Wachovia Securities suspended for nine months by FINRA. In January, 2008, Dorleus partnered with another securities broker to form Union National Investment Club. They raised $31,000 in private placements from investors and did not notify Wachovia Securities of their activity violating the securities laws.
4. Steven Franklin Bracy, Palm Beach Gardens, UBS Financial Services, barred by FINRA. Bracy also worked with Ross, Sinclaire & Associates. He was accused of misappropriating funds from both firms and filing false expense reports.
5. Jeanne Ann Scolnick, Coconut Creek, Aaron Capital, fined $10,000 and suspended for four months by FINRA. Scolnick received a $5,000 finder's fee and didn't tell her employer Aaron Capital in violation of securities laws.
6. VFinance Investments, Boca Raton, fined $12,500 and ordered to pay $468 in restitution to clients for failure to execute orders to buy and sell stock promptly, resulting in customers not obtaining the best prices.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida based, Soreide Law Group, represents clients nationwide in arbitrations before FINRA. For a free consultation on how to potentially recover your investment losses call: 888-760-6552 or visit our website at http://www.securitieslawyer.com.