Merrill fired the advisor for “conduct including making an unsuitable investment strategy recommendation and misrepresentation to a client” tied to an options investment and also for failing “to follow Firm standards related to business communications,” according to BrokerCheck.

IN THE

SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY STATE OF GEORGIA

Finra, whom denied any flaw in its process, hired the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler after a scathing order to vacate a Wells Fargo award.  The Judge had said Finra and Wells Fargo’s lawyer appeared to have a secret agreement to strike potential arbitrators from a neutral list and questioned the fairness of the process.

The concerns were reiterated by the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association, which called for “an immediate investigation” by the Securities and Exchange Commission and hearings in Congress, and by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) in a February 10 letter.

“Merrill’s systems did not properly screen Automated Clearing House transfers from customers’ accounts to detect when one of its registered representatives was the beneficiary of those transfers,” FINRA said. Merrill’s internal fraud-detection system was only “designed to detect fraud by third parties” or “persons other than its own brokers,” it continued.

According to the Order, Judge Belinda E. Edwards based her ruling in part on grounds that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority administrators had allowed Wells Fargo and an outside lawyer to “manipulate” the arbitrator selection process. The article in Advisor Hub notes that “A Finra dispute resolution director improperly granted Wells Fargo’s request to strike two arbitrators, including one from a computer-generated “neutral” list, as part of an unwritten side agreement between the regulator and Wells’ lawyer.”

“Permitting one lawyer to secretly red line the neutral list makes the list anything but neutral, and calls into question the entire fairness of the arbitral forum,” Judge Edwards wrote in the January 25 ruling.

Industry records confirms that Lacey Winston Keath alleged unsuitability in filings against J.P. Morgan’s traditional brokerage unit in high-risk equities and junk bonds–without authorization, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority award.

A J.P. Morgan spokeswoman declined to comment on the arbitration outcome or underlying dispute.

Miller Stern Lawyers is currently investigating matters pertaining to early rollovers of Unit Investment Trusts and other such practices. According to the reports from Finra, it finalized its sanctions against Merrill, and accepted a settlement letter from a 30-year Merrill veteran in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and another from a 35-year industry veteran in Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to the regulators information, including CRD information, both the brokers, Kelly Wayne Feehrer in Tennessee and Scott R. Mathews, who joined Merrill in 2009, agreed to three-month suspensions and $5,000 in fines for allegedly unsuitable UIT switch recommendations.

FINRA has recently fined and suspended a broker for trading in one of his customer’s non-discretionary accounts for five-and-a-half years without the customers written permission, however the worst of errors was his failure to realize that the client had been dead for two of those years, according to Advisor Hub.

Ignacio Erhart Del Campo CRD#6084596, who worked at Miami-based independent broker Insigneo Securities and predecessor firm Northeast Securities in Montevideo, Uruguay, agreed to a conditional $7,500 fine and reimbursement to the client’s estate of $19,189 for losses and commissions, along with a two-month suspension from the brokerage industry, according to a letter of acceptance, waiver and consent Finra’s enforcement department accepted on Wednesday, according to FINRA.