Jose Antonio Rivera, Registered Representative, Fort Myers, Florida

Florida FINRA Securities Fraud and Misrepresentation Attorney, Russell L. Forkey, Esq.

May, 2011

Jose Antonio Rivera (CRD #1822783, Registered Representative, Fort Myers, Florida, formerly licensed with Invest Financial Corporation and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for three months. The fine must be paid either immediately upon Rivera’s reassociation with a FINRA member firm following his suspension, or prior to the filing of any application or request for relief from any statutory disqualification, whichever is earlier. Without admitting or denying the findings, Rivera consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he 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 findings stated that the customer was not a family member and Rivera never informed the firm of the loan. The findings also stated that 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. The suspension is in effect from April 4, 2011, through July 3, 2011. (FINRA Case #2010022031601).

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