In or about 2009, FINRA fined 25 broker-dealers a total of $2,145,000 for failures related to their completion of FINRA’s (then NASD’s) firm self-assessment of mutual fund breakpoint discount compliance. The self-assessment required firms that sold front-end load mutual funds to review their compliance in providing breakpoint discounts to customers during 2001 and 2002 and [...]
On Sept. 28, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially charged former GunnAllen Financial broker Frank Bluestein with fraud, alleging he helped run a $250 Ponzi scheme that entailed luring investors to refinance their home mortgages. The SEC did not name GunnAllen in its complaint. However, in April 2008, seven investors who said they [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced that it had charged Detroit-area stock broker Frank Bluestein, formerly of Gunnallen Financial, Inc., with fraud, alleging that he lured elderly investors into refinancing the mortgages on their homes in order to fund their investments in a $250 million Ponzi scheme. The SEC alleges that Bluestein acted as [...]
In May 2009, FINRA Enforcement announced that Michael Ross Berkoff had been suspended from FINRA for a period of 30 business days and fined $10,000. Without admitting or denying FINRA’s findings, Berkoff consented to findings that he had failed to enter a stop-loss order on behalf of a client, and borrowed $8,000 from a customer [...]