NOTE: Stipulations of Fact and Consent to Penalty (SFC); Offers of Settlement (OS); and Letters of Acceptance Waiver, and Consent (AWC) are entered into by Respondents without admitting or denying the allegations, but consent is given to the described sanctions & to the entry of findings. Additionally, for AWCs, if FINRA has reason to believe a violation has occurred and the member or associated person does not dispute the violation, FINRA may prepare and request that the member or associated person execute a letter accepting a finding of violation, consenting to the imposition of sanctions, and agreeing to waive such member's or associated person's right to a hearing before a hearing panel, and any right of appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council, the SEC, and the courts, or to otherwise challenge the validity of the letter, if the letter is accepted. The letter shall describe the act or practice engaged in or omitted, the rule, regulation, or statutory provision violated, and the sanction or sanctions to be imposed.

Eddie Wayne Sawyers
AWC/2008015712501

Sawyers recommended to certain customers whose accounts he serviced at his member firm that they open online brokerage accounts at another broker-dealer, not affiliated with his firm, and that they give Sawyers discretionary authority over those accounts. The firm’s customers opened online brokerage accounts, but they did not give Sawyers written authority to trade in the accounts.

Sawyers conducted transactions on his firm’s customers’ behalf in the online brokerage accounts without notifying his firm in writing or verbally that he intended to use discretionary authority in the online brokerage accounts, and did not notify the online broker-dealer, in writing, that he was associated with a member firm. Sawyers took steps to conceal these activities from his firm and from the online broker-dealer by not using his own name in connection with the accounts, using a computer that was not his firm’s computer and a non-firm email address to set up the online-brokerage accounts and maintaining an exclusive email account to communicate about trade confirmations and monthly account statements with customers.

Sawyers falsely attested in his firm’s compliance questionnaire that he had not maintained any outside brokerage accounts that the firm had not approved in writing, and that he had not participated in any outside business activities that the firm had not approved in writing. Sawyers failed to timely respond to FINRA requests for information and failed to timely appear for a FINRA on-the-record interview.

Eddie Wayne Sawyers : Barred

Tags: Discretion  Email