South Florida Arbitration & Litigation Lawyer Blog
Arena Capital Corp – South Florida Municipial and Corporate Bond Mark-Up and Mark-Down Abuse FINRA Arbitration Attorney
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) is a self-regulatory authority assigned the responsibility, by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to license, regulate and discipline securities broker/dealers and their employees, including account executives. In the event that FINRA elects to institute an enforcement action, firms and licensed individuals have the responsibility to reflect such action on their U-4 and/or U-5 filings, which can be viewed on the FINRA website under the broker-check section of the site or by viewing the monthly disciplinary information also provided on the FINRA site.
The monthly disciplinary information is referenced on the FINRA site generally in alphabetical order. This post relates to the following company or individuals. If the reader would like to review the entire FINRA release or the broker-check information concerning this matter, you can follow the highlighted link:
March 2016 Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions:
Broker Check: http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck
Global Arena Capital Corp (CRD® #16871, New York, New York) was expelled from FINRA® membership, fined $1 million and ordered to disgorge $333,083.26, plus interest. The sanctions were based on findings that the firm charged customers unfair and unreasonable prices and excessive markups. The findings stated that the firm bought and sold corporate bonds from other broker-dealers to sell to its retail customers, charging them markups on the bonds. The firm also bought bonds from its retail customers and sold them to other broker-dealers, charging the customers markdowns. The transactions at issue were riskless principal transactions involving purchases and sales of the same bonds on the same day with firm customers on one or both sides of the transactions. Taking into consideration all relevant circumstances, these charges were not fair or reasonably related to the then current market price of the security, and the prevailing market price was not determined with reference to the contemporaneous cost incurred or the proceeds obtained. The findings also stated that the firm failed to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system, including written supervisory procedures (WSPs), reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws, and FINRA and NASD® rules, regarding fair pricing of corporate bond transactions and markups and markdowns.(FINRA Case #2011026544301)
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