FINRA Enforcement Actions

Tampa, Florida Securities Fraud Attorney, Russell L. Forkey, Esq.

One of the things that we try to do on this site is to inform investors about certain enforcement actions that have been commenced by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) against both brokerage firms and other FINRA licensed individuals, including account executives.

FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA’s mission is to protect America’s investors by making sure the securities industry operates fairly and honestly. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business-from registering and educating industry participants to examining securities firms; writing rules; enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities; and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms.

As part of FINRA;s oversight of licensed firms and individuals, FINRA periodically conducts audits of these firms to make sure that the firms are in compliance with all relevant securities laws, rules and regulations.

Also, members of FINRA’s enforcement staff routinely review all arbitration claims that are filed by public customers to determine whether or not the customer has alleged what appears to be a violation of any securities related rules, regulations or statutes. If the staff determines that a public customer’s claim alleges such a violation, the staff will investigate the matter further.

If FINRA determines that a registered firm or individual has violated any of these rules, regulations or statutes, FINRA will commence an enforcement action against the perpetrator.

There are a number of enforcement matters that are announced by FINRA on its website. We review these matters and try to present what we believe to be decisions of interest to investors.

In an attempt to organize the discussion of these decisions, we have tried to put, in alphabetical order, by year and month, these decisions for your convenience.

Please note when reviewing these decisions that unless the summary states otherwise, the firm or account executive has no obligation to any customers to repay them for losses associated with the discussed conduct. It is usually necessary for a customer to file an arbitration claim to attempt to recover losses associated therewith.