South Florida Arbitration & Litigation Lawyer Blog
Common and Preferred Stock Fraud and Misrepresentation Litigation and FINRA Arbitration Attorney, Russell L. Forkey, Esq.
November, 2011:
Brian Wade Boppre (CRD #2778187, Registered Principal, Minot, North Dakota) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $10,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any principal capacity for six months. The fine must be paid either immediately upon Boppre’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, Boppre consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he was a member of his firm’s new product committee, which was responsible for conducting due diligence and approving new products at the firm. The findings stated that Boppre knew of an issuer’s failure to make payments to its investors and was also aware of other indications of the issuer’s problems but approved the offering as a product available for his firm’s brokers to sell to their customers; Boppre also suspended the offering sales and then reopened the sales after further discussions with issuer executives. The findings also stated that Boppre allowed his firm’s brokers to continue selling the offering despite the issuer’s ongoing failure to make principal and interest payments, and despite other red flags concerning the issuer’s problems. The findings also included that Boppre, acting on his firm’s behalf, failed to conduct adequate due diligence of the offering before allowing firm brokers to sell this security; without adequate due diligence, the firm could not identify and understand the inherent risks of the offering and therefore could not have a reasonable basis to sell it. By not conducting adequate due diligence, Boppre failed to reasonably supervise firm brokers’ sales of the offering.
The suspension is in effect from September 19, 2011, through March 18, 2012. (FINRA Case #2009019125904).