SunTrust Investment Services Fined $1.44 Million for Fraudulent Sales of Unit Investment trusts and Mutual Funds.

Sanction Includes $540,000 to Defrauded Customers;

Broker David Bredenburg Barred

Donald Mattran , Former Branch Manager Suspended

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today thatSunTrust Investment Services, Inc. has agreed to pay$1.44 million to settle regulatory charges that it sold unsuitable unit investment trusts (UIT), closed-end fund (CEF) and mutual fund transactions to 17 customers who incurred loss...

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Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP announced that it completed its annual review of disciplinary actions brought by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in 2009.  On June 22, 2010, FINRA issued its “2009 Year in Review.”  By reviewing FINRA’s notices and releases, Sutherland Partners Deborah G. Heilizer and Brian L. Rubin and Associate Shanyn L. Gillespie found that FINRA reported modest increases in fines and disciplinary actions in 2009, as compared to 2008, but was less active than in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Sutherland also identified the...

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Many investment advisors are brokerage firm rejects.

They may have been disciplined or subject to numerous complaints while at a brokerage firm, but then reinvent themselves as investment advisors.

The only problem is that once they have been unregistered for two years, FINRA, subject to certain recent exceptions, does not provide any information regarding these individuals, and the SEC's Investment Advisor database provides no information regarding individuals registered with investment advisory firms.

However, as of yesterday, that has all changed.<...

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 Banks do not want to be in the banking business. It is too risky. Banks, through their broker-dealer affiliates, would rather earn fees and commissions from the sale of investment products to consumers, where all the risk is passed along to the customer.

Customers owning Certificates of Deposit, money market accounts, or even interest bearing checking accounts with material balances, will get a call from an individual associated with their "bank," a financial consultant, who wants to show you how you can get higher returns on your money.

Customers se...

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In May, Marilyn Hazell won a $400,000 Finra arbitration claim against Peak Securities Corp., claiming breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud stemming from the purchase of notes offered by Medical Provider Funding Corp. VI.

Those notes are at the center of a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud complaint issued last summer. The SEC charged Medical Capital Holdings Inc., the parent company of the issuer, with fraud in the sale of $77 million in notes. Dozens of independent broker-dealers sold the notes.

A scan of the Finra database of a...

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