How did WSJ get a Jeff Bezos private text message? Someone close to the story seeking justice and not unlike the way we acquired this confidential industry email to Attorneys at Law who support those working in the securities industry and who are falsely discharged. We start with a former Employer.
From: Redacted
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2019 5:19 PM
To: Terminated from First Allied Securities Over Discretionary Trades
Subject: Redacted
Name redacted
Kudos for identifying an under-serviced niche in the legal market. The financial business which you serve is rich beyond comparison.
We have all seen the huge builds in New York, New York. They are spectacles of capitalism paid for in full by the securities industry. I had many occasions to be in PaineWebber, my former employer, on Avenue of the Americas. As well as Painewebber in Weehawken, New Jersey, where I obtained my Series 7 General Securities Representative license on June 7 1985. I’m currently not registered with any state or firm but they were fond memories.
It is not only my former employers, I also appreciate the architectural wonders of other broker-dealers as well. I was recently registered with First Allied Securities and love to see their office from under the Coronado Bridge when I sail San Diego Bay.
Sadly though, those buildings are paid for with the blood sweat and tears of each broker/adviser that works endless hours to produce revenue numbers based on projection that come from corporate suites far above the fray of the day to day business of prospecting and fielding customer complaints when markets go against them. Yet they are usually last on the list when job security or legal protection is needed. Enter the redacted Law Group, P.C.
You understand the bias senior management has when it comes to choosing between a client who threatens to sue or an adviser that can easily be terminated in connection to alleged rule violations and quickly replaced. Firms routinely settle unfairly against stockbrokers giving agents no recourse to accusations. A customer initiated investment related arbitration claim regarding conduct, was resolved for $31,500.00 in damages based upon allegations that unsuitable corporate debt transactions were effected in the customer’s investment account. The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Arbitration No. 00-01529 (Mar. 28, 2001) is one example but the files are endless. So, Kudos to you and your firm.
Kudos too, for knowing FINRA is the place to start this expungement process by seeking contravention of firm rules. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (former NASD – National Association of Securities Dealers) a self-regulating entity, set up to enforce and arbitrate, has allowed the powerful ownership groups to have their way with placing the blame, and at times ruing careers, of those at the bottom of the professional ladder.
FINRA has even looked the other way when firms flat-out allowed securities agents to take the blame for unsuitable investment that were pushed by firms underwriting investments banks One example is in 1994 a customer alleged agent while employed at Painewebber, did not inform them that their investment was in junk bonds. The complaint settled for more than $16,600 on average for each sales representative across the entire firm.
This breach of perspective by the Financial Industry has spawned a whole new Wall Street business witnessed by the growing legal firms on Liberty street and throughout lower Manhattan. Firms like Fitapelli & Kurta Attorneys at Law, or the Guiliano Law Group P.C. scour CRd #’s and BrokerCheck, to trolling for unhappy customers willing to sue their broker. Validity of the charge often is unimportant because these attorneys know the security firms will settle, in essence throw the adviser under the bus, to keep from going to arbitration.
I don’t know what your firm does in revenues but I know you choose right over easy and my hope is you are hugely successful.
Thank You, name redacted