Moloney Securities of Missouri in Trouble Yet Again

According to the public record available on the internet for Moloney Securities, the small broker-dealer has had seven regulatory events, including a FINRA censure and fines and an SEC cease and desist order going back to 2000.  It has also paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in arbitration awards against it. 

The most recent settlement came in May of this year.  According to a public disclosure from FINRA, “an AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $100,000 and ordered to pay $15,574.13, plus interest, in restitution to a customer. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system, including WSPs, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA’s suitability rule with respect to qualitative suitability and concentration in high-risk products. Further, the firm did not provide any training to its regional managers on reviewing the suitability of recommendations in such products, nor did it issue any instructional materials or alerts, such as compliance bulletins, addressing these issues.  The firm also failed to provide regional managers with reasonable automated tools that would have helped them perform those reviews. A firm registered representative recommended that senior customers purchase risky oil and gas limited partnerships and oil and gas exchange traded funds which caused them to become concentrated in these products. The firm’s electronic surveillance system did not flag the transactions for concentration issues, nor was the concentration questioned or reviewed by anyone at the firm. Similarly, an elderly customer accepted the representative’s recommendations to purchase oil and gas limited partnerships in accounts she held at the firm causing her to suffer unrealized losses of $15,574.13. The firm paid restitution totaling $195,500 to four of the senior customers.”

Unlike many firms, CosgroveLaw Group, LLC has experience both defending broker-dealers against regulatory actions and representing customers against broker-dealers who act inappropriately with their accounts.  Our attorneys and staff have decades of experience as regulators and in the private securities sector.  This diversity allows us to provide a well-rounded view of each matter and better assist our clients with their legal matters.