Chris focuses his practice on complex litigation and arbitration in the securities and commodities industries. His securities practice involves handling both customer and industry disputes, as well as regulatory matters, involving issues of fraud, suitability, breach of contract, wrongful termination, negligence, defamation on a Form U-5, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent misrepresentations, and violations of state and federal securities laws. His commodities practice involves handling a wide variety of matters including issues of churning, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, unauthorized trading, failure to supervise, and NFA arbitration. He has litigated matters in a variety of forums including FINRA arbitration, NFA arbitration, and AAA arbitration, and he has represented clients in both state and federal courts. Chris also has experience defending industry members against regulatory actions brought by FINRA and the NFA. His experience in both the securities and commodities industries has exposed him to a variety of industry and customer situations, as well as a variety of products, including tenancies in common (TICS), real estate investment trusts (REITS), auction rate securities (ARS), swaps, bonds, futures, options, variable annuities, private placements, and other derivatives.
Sorry for the flurry of posts this week, but the development Chris writes about here was not expected, and it is important enough that I decided to push it out today, on the eve of a three-day weekend. – Alan
Today FINRA announced in a press release here that it has withdrawn from SEC consideration…
I have been in a JAMS arbitration the last week or so, so thanks to Chris — Mr. Expungement — for his thoughts about PIABA’s study. – Alan
In a move that surprised nobody, PIABA[1] recently released an updated study on expungement awards from 2019/2020, and, in the most predictable fashion, they continue to…
Here is the second part of Chris’s blog on FINRA’s effort to make expungement harder and more expensive to obtain. It is remarkable to me just how blatant FINRA has been here in admitting the reasons for the rule amendments. Anyone who thinks that FINRA is a membership organization that actually cares for its members…
I apologize for the long break between blog posts, but I have been preparing for a two-week FINRA Enforcement hearing…to be conducted by Zoom! As is typical of most Enforcement cases that go to hearing, the Staff has insisted that — surprise! — my clients be permanently barred. So, while the method of communication will…
A couple of years ago, I complained about PIABA’s effort to make expungement even more difficult to obtain. Well, fast forward to June 1, and, as Chris Seps explains here, the SEC has approved the first proposed expungement rule change from FINRA, one that appears to serve no purpose other than to generate money for…
I heartily endorse this post from my colleague, Chris, who’s been quiet of late. It says a lot about FINRA, in terms of how it deigns to spend your assessment money, how fairness in the Enforcement process can be completely illusory, and how it is consistently unable to convince much of the investing public that…
When a registered rep contacts us about seeking expungement of customer complaints from his or her CRD record, we always respond that expungement is not a sure thing. It turns out that is more true than ever before because of the way FINRA is treating its “waiver” process.
You see, we recently participated in an…
Here is a piece from Chris Seps, who has a bit of a reputation around here for being angry. Judge for yourself. But, for what it’s worth, I do want to say that I have had the pleasure of being involved in several cases in which the subject of this post, Dr. Craig McCann, appeared…
At the end of last week, we received our second[1] decisive win in a FINRA Enforcement case in a matter of days. Following a two-day hearing back in July, the hearing Panel dismissed all charges against our clients Paul J. McIntyre and MSC-BD, LLC. While any victory is nice, and doing justice for a…
I’ve previously posted about my frustration with the way the discovery guide is written, with particular attention focused on List 1 Item 10. See my prior post here. Item 14 causes me similar angst. Why? Because Item 14 is so poorly worded that, if read literally, almost no audit report will ever be responsive…
